SPED Timeline

By jflore14

  • Architectural Barriers Act

    This act mandated public buildings to not have any structural layout that would prevent certain people from having access (e.g. a ramp for people in wheelchairs). Although this act did not pertain directly to education and occured well before much of the more obvious pieces of legislation in this timeline, I think it set an important precident. It established the idea that public entities that drew from public funds needed to make accomodations to all people, including those with disabilities.

  • Rehabilitation Act (Section 504)

    Essentially what this act did was extend the idea of civil rights to people with disabilities. It means that people with disabilities could not be treated as less than human, certainly in contrast with the previous culture of institutionalizing all such people. Furthermore, it requires that schools and other entities need to provide reasonable accomodations for people with disabilities.

  • Education for All Handicapped Children Act

    This act established a few important precidents regarding the education of people with disabilities that we still follow. The first is that all students (disabled or not) are entitled to a free and appropriate public education. The second is that students with disabilities are to be placed in the least restrictive environment possible according to their disability. The idea is to keep them more involved in the general education classroom.

  • Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act

    This perhaps has a little bit less to do with public education, because it has to do with institutionalized people. However, this law extends to those institutionalized due to disabilities, and it safeguards their rights, including those that pertain to their education. Essentially, this act makes institutions more open to checks and investigations for the purpose of preventing abuse.

  • Americans with Disabilities Act

    The main point of this act was to illegalize discrimination based on a disability. This has a big impact in the workforce, but also in education. It protects students with disabilities from being treated unfairly on the basis of their disabilities alone.

  • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

    IDEA is an act that was designed to provide equal opportunity for students with disabilities. Aside from just free and appropriate public education, schools also need to (within reason) tailor the education to the individual's needs. Much of what goes into IEPs is grounded on this principle.

  • ADA Ammendments Act

    This act was basically an extension of the Americans with Disabilities Act. There had been some court cases where the ADA was interpreted by the courts in a way that the lawmakers did not intend. So this act strengthened the language to further protect people with disabilities from being discriminated against.