Special Education Timeline

  • Watson Vs. City of Cambridge

    Massachusetts Supreme Court upheld a student's expulsion because of poor academic performance
  • Wisconsin Supreme Court

    The court denied an education to a student with cerebral palsy
  • Parents made up the first groups to advocate for an education for thier children.

  • Brown Vs. Board of Education

    The US Supreme Court ruled that segregation based on race was unconstitutional
  • President's Panel on Mental Retardation

    The President's Panel on Mental Retardation spent a year busily gathering information, interpreting data, and debating solutions... At a meeting with the president on October 16, 1962, they presented more than 100 recommendations for a comprehensive federal approach to intellectual disabilities and urged him to "think and plan boldly."
    https://www.jfklibrary.org/JFK/JFK-in-History/JFK-and-People-with-Intellectual-Disabilities.aspx
  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act

    Signed by Lyndon B. Johnson, this act provided funding for education.
  • Elementary and Secondary Education Act, Amended

    An amendment a year after it was signed, allocated funds for students with disabilities.
  • Rehabilitation Act of 1973

    Required that students with disabilities receive accommodations.
  • EHA - The Education for all Handicapped Children Act

    Signed by President Gerald Ford, this act required all schools that received public funds to provide equal access to education to students with disabilities.
  • BOE of Hendrick Hudson Central School District Vs. Rowley

    The court ruled that students who qualify for special education must have access in public schools to meet those needs.
  • The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)

    The ADA "is the nation's first comprehensive civil rights law addressing the needs of people with disabilities, prohibiting discrimination in employment, public services, public accommodations, and telecommunications."
    www.eeoc.gov/eeoc/history/35th/1990s/ada.html
  • IDEA Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

    IDEA replaced EHA with updated revisions and amendments to provide students with disabilities programs that are "meaningful and measurable."
  • No Child Left Behind

    Signed by President George W. Bush, was a reinstatement Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. It provided funds for disadvantaged students as well as Title I.
  • RTI

    IDEA allowed additional way to identify students with learning disabilities using programs like RTI.