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First Special Education School
The first American School devoted to the education of deaf children opened in 1817. Now called “the American School for the Deaf”, the American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf and Dumb was founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Dr. Mason Fitch Cogswell, the latter of which was strongly motivated to begin the school after his daughter became deaf due to scarlet fever. It was at this school where American Sign Language was first created.
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AAIDD founded
The American Association on Mental Deficiency (now the American Association on Intellectual and Developmental Disabilities) was founded and was the world’s first professional organization focused on the research of intellectual disabilities. As an evidence-based organization, it has refined the diagnostic criteria of 'intellectual and developmental disabilities’, specifying that adaptive behavior must be affected (made up of three skills: conceptual skills, social skills, and practical skills) -
CEC Founded
In 1922, The Council for Exceptional Children was founded and is now the largest international professional organization committed to improving the lives of children with disabilities. They provide resources and professional development for special educators. The original founder and president, Elizabeth E. Farrell established that one of the fundamental goals of the CEC was to create professional standards for the field of special education source -
1st research institute for disabled children
In 1951, the University of Illinois opened the first institution for research on exceptional children, placing emphasis on students that were considered “slow learners”. This label would subsequently be understood as a learning disability being present in a child. -
PARC vs Commonwealth of PA
8 year old Bobby was refused entry to the 3rd grade on account of his intellectual disability. The school cited PA law granting schools the right to refuse children who “have not attained a mental age of five…by the age of 8”. His parents and community formed PARC (Pennsylvania Association of Retarded Children), to sue the commonwealth of PA. The 1st right-to-education US lawsuit resulted in the previous law being overturned in favor of new mandates. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QtFmp3XduaQ -
Mills vs Board of Education of DC
In 1972, the parents of seven students with various disabilities filed a lawsuit against their school district on the grounds that their children were not receiving an appropriate education, which they believed was an infringement on their children’s fourteenth amendment rights. The outcome of this lawsuit ensured that “no child could be denied a public education because of mental, behavioral, physical, or emotional handicaps or deficiencies”.
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EAHCA passed
In 1975, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed. This law required free education for all students with disabilities that was appropriate for their needs. This act also required Individualized Education Programs, or IEP’s to be formed for each student by their educators. This act furthermore first defined what a “Least Restrictive Environment” (LRE) looks like, creating six levels of required available services. -
EAHCA expanded under 'IDEA'
The EAHCA is re-issued and expanded under the name ‘the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)’. The most significant additions include establishing people-first language in all appropriate settings, as well as the inclusion of autism and traumatic brain injuries as categories of disabilities, extending the entitlements and rights of disabled people to be more inclusive. This act also provided bilingual education to include even more young students with learning disabilities. -
No Child Left Behind Act
One of the most influential pieces of legislation passed regarding the rights of people with disabilities was the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). The results included increased accountability in schools providing inadequate special education, as well as providing more highly qualified special needs teachers to students with disabilities. The goal was to see less and less of a discrepancy in academic performance between students of varying socioeconomic backgrounds, and disability statuses. -
IDEIA
IDEA is re-issued a 2nd time under the new title: the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA). The goal was to update the act to be consistent with No Child Left Behind. This increased funding to early intervention services for students with disabilities who don’t require special education. Also implementing a RTI model for students who have not been diagnosed with a learning disability as a way to identify potential disabilities that have gone undiagnosed.