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SPED Legislative Highlights
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ESEA - Elementary and Secondary Education Act
Signed into law in 1965 by President Lyndon Baines Johnson
who believed that "full educational opportunity" should be "our first national goal."
It offered new grants to districts serving low-income students, federal grants for text and library books, it created special education centers, and created scholarships for low-income college students. Additionally, the law provided federal grants to state educational agencies to improve the quality of elementary and secondary education. -
VRA Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973
Prohibits discrimination against students with disabilities in federally funded programs
The wording of Section 504 directly echoes Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. -
FERPA - The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act
FERPA gives parents access to their child's education records, an opportunity to seek to have the records amended, and some control over the disclosure of information from the records. With several exceptions, schools must have a student's consent prior to the disclosure of education records after that student is 18 years old. -
EHA - Education for Handicapped Act
EHA - Education for Handicapped Act - The complete title for the act is the Education for All Handicapped Children Act EAHCA.
This act required all public schools accepting federal funds to provide equal access to education and one free meal a day for children with physical and mental disabilities. Public schools were required to evaluate handicapped children and create an educational plan with parent input that would emulate as closely as possible the educational experience of non-disabled stu -
Regulations of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Issued
Regulations of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 are issued, to begin with 1977-78 school year, and includes a requirement for a self-evaluation of all policies and procedures of your school district and your state education agency so that discriminatory policies would be stopped. (Congress notes in 1990 hearings that school districts illegally ignored this requirement). -
Handicapped Children's Protection Act
The EAHCA is amended with the addition of the Handicapped Children's Protection Act (in which Congress overturns a Supreme Court decision that said the EAHCA was "an exclusive remedy" and that parents could not also use Section 504 to protect their child). The amendment makes clear that students and parents have rights under the IDEA and Section 504 at the same time. -
ADA - The Americans with Disabilities Act
ADA - The Americans with Disabilities Act is enacted. Congress finds that the failures of school districts over the past 15 years of special education laws requires them to add the protection of the ADA to parents and students with disabilities. The ADA also adopts the Section 504 regulations as part of the ADA statute, so now the 504 regulations have the full weight of a federal statute. -
IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
The EAHCA is amended and is now called the IDEA - Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, adding transition as a requirement. IDEA is a comprehensive Federal statute which entitles each student with a disability to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to meet his or her unique needs. -
The IDEA Amendments of 1997
The IDEA Amendments of 1997 - the bill was signed by former President Clinton on June 4, 1997.
Identifying children with special needs before they enter school and providing services to help them, Developing individualized education programs (IEPs) that focus on improving educational results through the general curriculum, Educating children with disabilities with their nondisabled peers, Setting higher expectations for students who are disabled and ensuring schools are held accountable, Strengt
