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Brown vs. The Board of Education
The Supreme Court ruled that school segregation by race was unconstitutional even if they split up the funding equally. Before this bill, black students and white students were seperated and forced to attend different schools, and this law was pivotal in starting new framework for equality among all students.
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Americans With Disabilites Act
This act is a very well known act that protected Americans with disabilites against discrimination in the public. This applies to employment, housing, transportation, and public accommodations. Equal access was granted for each of those sections.
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Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA)
This bill was passed by Congress and was a part of president Lyndon B. Johnson's "War on Poverty." His goal with the ESEA act was to make sure that children from disadvantage families would have equal access to a quality education as students from higher income familes did. Some qualities of the act were free and reduced lunches and grants for states that were designed to create/improve special education programs.This act was revised as the Education of the Handicapped Act in 1970. Online -
Pennsylvania Association for Retarted Children v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
This court case was enacted in 1971 that challenged the exclusion of individuals with mental retardation from public education and training. This right-to-education suit was won by the PARC and it set the standard/established that each child has to be offered an individualized education and students should be put in the least restrictive environment to maximize learning. It is now known as the IDEA Act. Textbook -
Vocational Rehabilitation Act
This act helped define what it means to be "handicapped," as well as definded "appropriate education." It also helped prohibit discrimination against students who have disabilites. This act also required employers to take affirmitive actions to hire workers who may have a disability. -
Education for All Handicapped Children Act
This act was also known as the mainstreaming law as it required students to be mainstreamed into the everyday classroom activities. To aid the teachers in mainstreaming these children, IEP's were required for each student with a need. Another landmark of this law was the defining of the Least Restrictive Environment. (Textbook) -
IDEA Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
This act made sure that the correct language was being used when referring to people with disabilites, called, " people first," language. This act also extends the services provided to include social services, assistive technology, and rehab services. They also added two new categories of disabilities, "autism," and " traumatic brain injury." This act also required schools to provide billingual education programs for students and provide transition support to employment and other endeavors. Web -
No Child Left Behind
This act required states to implement standards and assessment to measure schools and administer funding. It required that all students with disabilities or not to participate in assessment and this was designed to have more informed teaching, raising of expectations, and the learning of social skills that students with disabilites need. Web -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act
This act was designed to improve the effectiveness of the IDEA act. To improve they allowed districts to use RTI's to determine if a child needs special help. It also increased funding so that schools can provide early services for students with need, as well as taking out objectives for students who do not participate in the statewide assessment tests. Another important part is it raises the standards for sp. ed. licensure. Textbook
