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May 1954: Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education Topeka. The Supreme Court ruled it was unconstitutional for educational institutions to segregate students based on race. This ruling later led to helping Special Education laws. -
April, 1965: Elementary Secondary Education Act
ESEA: signed into law by Lyndon B. Johnson as part of the “War on Poverty.” ESEA not only called for equal access to education for all students, but also federal funding for both primary and secondary education for students disadvantaged by poverty. -
1968: Mainstreaming
Sometime Around 1968 students with mild disabilities were mainstreamed with students without disabilities. -
November, 1975 Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EHA)
President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, otherwise known as Public Law 94-142. This law required all states that accepted money from the federal government were required to provide equal access to education for children with disabilities, in addition to providing them with one free meal per day. States had the responsibility to ensure compliance under the law within all of their public school systems -
October, 1976 Amendment to EHA
Public Law 99-457 was an amendment to the All Handicapped Children Act, which mandated that individual states provide services to families of children born with disabilities from the time they are born. Previously, these services were not available until a child reached the age of three -
August, 1986: Handicapped Children Protection Act
President Reagan signed the Handicapped Children’s Protection Act, a law that gave parents of children with disabilities more say in the development of their child’s Individual Education Plan, or IEP. -
June, 1997: New amendments for IDEA
June, 1997: The Education for all Handicapped Children’s Act became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. President Clinton reauthorized IDEA with several key amendments that emphasized providing all students with access to the same curriculum, additionally, states were given the authority to expand the “developmental delay” definition from birth through five years of age to also include students between the ages of six and nine. -
2001: No Child Left Behind Act
No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Congress stated that all children regardless of disability or not much be instructed using the state standards and that students must pass all state assessments. -
December 2004: New Amendment for IDEA
Congress amended IDEA by calling for early intervention for students, greater accountability and improved educational outcomes, and raised the standards for instructors who teach special education classes.