-
In 1845, on modern day Hillsborough Street, the Governor Morehead School for blind people opened and was the first of it's kind in the South. The school housed the "North Carolina Institution for the Education of the Dead and Dumb and the Blind" and opened with 23 deaf students between the ages of 8 and 32. Blind students were then enrolled in 1851. Source: https://www.ncpedia.org/governor-morehead-school#:~:text=The%20Governor%20Morehead%20School%2C%20North,its%20kind%20in%20the%20South. -
Early Special Education programs emphasized manual labor skills 9such as carpentry and metal work. Students were also taught "social values" and African-American students were also subjected to "moral training".
-
The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in the Brown v. Board of Education case declared that segregated schools were inherently unequal and therefore "have no place in the field of public education". Parents of disabled students then began to bring lawsuits against their school districts which argued that their schools were discriminating against their children because of their disabilities.
-
-
The Elemental and Secondary Education Act of 1965 was passed to address the inequality and educational opportunities for underprivileged children. In 1966 the ESEA was amended to establish a grant program for states to initiate, expand and improve programs and projects for the education of handicapped children. In 1970, the ESEA was replaced by the "Education of the Handicapped Act" which continued the grant programs established by the ESEA.
-
The Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children in the early 1970s dealt with the exclusion of children with disabilities from public schools. The school district argued the high cost of educating children with disabilities so therefore they should be excluded from the system. The U.S. district court of East Pennsylvania ruled in favor of PARC and opened the doors for students with disabilities.
-
Following the 1971 decision of PARC vs Penn, in 1972, congress conducted an investigation to identify how many students with disabilities were being underserved by their school districts. The Bureau of Education for the Handicapped found 2.5 million students that were receiving a substandard education and 1.75 million students were not even attending school.
-
In 1975, congress passed Public Law 94-142, aka The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 with the intention for all children with disabilities to "have a right to education, and to establish a process by which State and local educational agencies may be held accountable for providing educational services for all handicapped children.” This law has been reauthorized multiple times, with the most recently in 2004. It's aim is to protect handicapped children, and their parents.
-
-
-
-
The No Child Left Behind act of 2001 reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) and aimed to increase accountability of public schools by withholding federal spending if the schools did not conduct certain assessments. The assessments applied to all students, to include those with disabilities.
-
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) refocused and improved upon the previous Special Education laws. In 2004, congress found ongoing problems with over-identification of minority children, including mislabeling high dropout rates. For example "African-American children are identified as having mental retardation and emotional disturbance at rates greater than their White counterparts."
-