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The U.S. Supreme Court decided in the Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka case that it was unconstitutional for educational institutions to segregate children by race. This landmark legal ruling would have far-reaching implications for special education arena.
https://educationonline.ku.edu/community/idea-timeline -
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.
https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/education/elementary-and-secondary-education-act-of-1965/ -
PARC v. Penn called for students with disabilities to be placed in publicly funded school settings that met their individual educational needs, based on a proper and thorough evaluation.
http://www2.ed.gov/policy/speced/leg/idea/history.htmlhttp://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/osers/idea35/history/index_pg10.html -
This was the first special education law directed at students with physical and mental disabilities. The law stated that public schools must provide children with special needs with the same opportunities for education as other children.. It also required any public school that received federal funds to provide one free meal a day for these children.
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The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA), Public Law 94-142, provides for a free, appropriate public education for handicapped children, as well as due process procedures.
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Traumatic brain injury and autism were added as new disability categories. Additionally, Congress mandated that as a part of a student’s IEP, an individual transition plan, or ITP, must be developed to help the student transition to post-secondary life.
https://educationonline.ku.edu/community/idea-timeline -
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.
https://educationonline.ku.edu/community/idea-timeline -
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.
https://educationonline.ku.edu/community/idea-timeline -
On December 19, 2014, President Barack Obama signed into law the Achieving a Better Life Experience (ABLE) Act of 2013. The ABLE Act amends Section 529 of the Internal Revenue Service Code of 1986 to create tax-advantaged savings accounts for individuals with disabilities. These tax-advantaged savings accounts can be used to cover qualified disability expenses such as, but not limited to, education, housing and transportation.
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Schools must do more than provide a “merely more than de minimis” education for students with disabilities and instead must provide them with an opportunity to make "appropriately ambitious" progress in line with the federal education law.
https://www.usnews.com/news/education-news/articles/2017-03-22/supreme-court-expands-rights-for-students-with-disabilities
