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Compulsory Education Laws
Starting with Rhode Island, states started to require all children to attend school in some form. By 1918, all the states in the country had adopted a compulsory education law -
Brown V. Board of Education
Civil Rights activists argued that the segregated schools did not offer equal education to all students. The Supreme Courts ruling to uphold that separate is not equal helped to strengthen the 14th Amendment law that states that no person can be rejected an equal education to any citizen in their jurisdiction. This extended to special education because it bans schools from turning away a student because of his\her disability. -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
The acts aim was to improve education for all students. It also offered schools grants for programs that help students with disabilities and to encourage better programs for special education -
Mills V. Board of Education
Seven out-of-school students who had an array of disabilities filed against the Board of Education of Washington D.C. for excluding students from their schools because of the students disabilities. The Supreme Court ruled that school's must provide a student with a disability with a public education and that the parents have the right to sue as well as the right to information. Labeling, placement, and the exclusion of the students with disabilities also had guidelines set. -
PARC v. Pennsylvania
The Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children argued that Public shouldn't be able to reject students with disabilities because the students will benefit from the education, school's teach life skills, and that the schools have a duty to all the students in their jurisdiction. The Supreme Court ruled that the schools must give students with disabilities from ages 6-21 a free public education that follows the general education guidelines. -
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Section 504 ensured that any place receiving federal funding wasn't allowed to discriminate against people with disabilities and must provide accommodation. This means that public schools must provide students with one or more disabilities that impair life activities with accommodations that ensure they have equal access to educations and activities. -
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975
The EAHCA put into federal law that schools must provide nondiscriminatory evaluation and placement to students with disabilities that qualify. The qualifying students must be placed in the Least Restrictive Environment, have access to procedural due process, and are given an appropriate education. Parents are to be involved in all decisions and have access to all information pertaining to their child. An Individualized Education Plan is developed for each student and reviewed each year. -
Technology-Related Assistance to Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988
The Tech Act provides federal funding to help states provide people with disabilities technology and technological devices. This includes students with disabilities. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The ADA forbids private sector from discriminating against people with disabilities in employment, transportation, state and local government activities, and companies open to the public. These businesses or public activity must provide accommodations for a person with a disability. This law does not provide funding. -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act
A reauthorization of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 that expands the range of eligibility from 3-21 to birth to 21. It also ensured that students with disabilities were to follow the same curriculum as students without disabilities. -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act reauthorization
The reauthorization added stricter rules on use of restraints and seclusion, recommends mediation for due process, IEP teams can change an IEP without a meeting if school officials and parents permit it, raises the qualifications of teachers in Special Education, and raised funding. -
Every Student Succeeds Act
This law is a reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education act of 1965 that ensures services to students with disabilities and seeks the improvement of the education of all students. This is measured by the six principles: accountability for results, school safety, parental choice, teacher quality, scientifically based method of teaching, and local flexibility.
