The History of Special Education

By rjennings1

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    During this case, concerns about the ability grouping of minorities was brought up. Ability grouping and separate special education classes kept minority students segregated from their white peers. (Skiba et al, 2008)

  • Dunn Critiques Special Education

    Lloyd Dunn critiques special education saying that the increase of ethnic and language minority students in special education is a civil rights issue and should be payed attention to by the school system. (Skiba et al, 2008)

  • Mills v. Board of Education

    This court case dealt with the concerns about racial inequity and eventually led to the creation of the first special education legislation (Skiba et al, 2008)

  • Rehabilitation Act

    This act prohibits the discrimination of individuals with disabilities. (Skiba et al, 2008), (Wright & Wright, 2022)

  • Family Education Rights and Privacy Act

    This legislation aims to protect the rights and privacy of parents and students and allows parents access to their child's education records. (Wright & Wright, 2022)

  • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

    This legislation is the first of its kind for Special Education. In this legislation IEP's were created to meet the unique needs of individual students in the least restrictive environment. (Skiba et al, 2008), (Hancock, 2022), (Wright & Wright, 2022)

  • Education for All Handicapped Children Act

    This legislation addressed the role of standardized testing and its relation to reduced educational opportunity afforded by the racial isolation of minorities in special education programs. (Skiba et al, 2008)

  • Assistive Technology Act

    This legislation provides assistive technology to ensure students are able to fully participate in class. (University of Massachusetts Global, 2020)

  • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act - Improvement Act

    This reauthorized the previous IDEA legislation and amplified the thoughts in 1975. This legislation was created to ensure the continued access to free appropriate education in the least restrictive environment, supplementary aids and services and appropriate assessment. This legislation also includes a status report on minorities disproportionately in special education. (Skiba et al, 2008), (Hancock, 2022), (Wright & Wright, 2022)

  • No Child Left Behind AKA Every Student Succeeds Act

    Aimed at improving primary and secondary schools by holding schools accountable for student performance. This legislation penalized schools that did not show improvement.