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Brown v. Board of Education
Brown v. Board of Education was a landmark 1954 Supreme Court case where it was ruled unanimously that racial segregation of children in public schools was unconstitutional. Following this ruling, parents of children with disabilities began to bring lawsuits against their school districts for excluding and segregating children with disabilities. The parents said that by excluding their children, schools were discriminating against the children because of their disabilities. -
Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
A consent decree in which the state agreed to provide a free public education for children with mental retardation. The first right-to-education suit in the country, to overturn that Pennsylvania law and secure a quality education for all children. This started education for children with disabilities. -
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Section 504 forbids organizations/employers from excluding/ denying individuals with disabilities an equal opportunity to receive program benefits and services. It defines the rights of individuals with disabilities to participate in, have access to program benefits and services.It requires that districts provide FAPE to qualified students who have a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, regardless of the nature or severity of the disability. -
Public Law 94-142: The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975
On November 29, 1975, President Gerald Ford signed into law the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142). It guaranteed a free, appropriate public education, or FAPE, to each child with a disability in every state and locality across the country. This is the spring board for special education services. -
Education for All Handicapped Children Act
Public Law 101-476 called for significant changes to Public Law 94-142. 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. -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act 1990
Law that makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children. IDEA governs how states and public agencies provide early intervention, special education, and related services to more eligible infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities. IDEA replaced EHA to place more focus on the individual learner, as opposed to the condition that individual may have. -
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination based on disability. It affords similar protections against discrimination to Americans with disabilities. ADA prohibits disability discrimination by all public entities at the local level;school district, municipal, city, or county, and at state level. Access includes physical access described in the ADA Standards for accessible design and programmatic access that might be obstructed by discriminatory policies or procedures of the entity. -
The Assistive Technology Act
It provides assistive technology to persons with disabilities so they can attempt to participate in education, employment and daily activities on a level playing fields with other people in their communities. It was reauthorized in 2004. The Act covers people with disabilities of all ages, all disabilities, in all environments; early intervention, K-12, post-secondary, vocational rehabilitation, community living, aging services, etc. -
No Child Left Behind
The No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, Public Law 107-110, was a U.S. Act of Congress that reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act; it included Title I provisions applying to disadvantaged students. Before NCLB many students were automatically assigned lower standards and given lower achievement goals than others, especially exceptional learners. Through NCLB, exceptional learners are now pushed to achieve the same standards as their peers. -
IDEA 2004
The President signed the reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004) into law. The new law preserves the basic structure and civil rights guarantees of IDEA but also makes significant changes in the law. Every state must develop specific criteria, in accordance with the requirements in the regulations, to determine whether a child has a specific learning disability and, as a result of that disability, requires special education.