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Horace Mann creates the First "Common School"
Mann proposed a solution to the waves of poor, non-English speaking immigrants that came into the United States during the 19th century. He recommended that communities establish common schools funded by tax dollars. He believed that students who differed socially, religiously, politically, and economically would learn to respect and accepts one another through being educated together. -
First Special Education Programs
The first special educations programs were for "at risk" children living in urban slums. These urban school districts designed manual training classes to supplement general education programs (carpentry, metal work, sewing, cooking, drawing, etc.) -
Brown v. Board of Education Impact
Supreme Court decision made which benchmarked parents of children with disabilities to bring forth lawsuits against their school districts for excluding/segregating children with disabilities. -
PL 85-86 Enacted
These two laws provided training for professionals and teachers who worked with students with mental retardation. -
PL 87 (276) Enacted
This law provided training for teachers to work with the deaf or hard of hearing. -
Handicapped Children's Early Education Assistance Act
This act funded early childhood intervention for children with disabilities. -
Pennsylvania Assn. for Retarded CHildren v. Commonwealth & Mills v. Board of Education of District of Columbia Decisions.
These two Supreme Court rulings addressed the importance of providing publicly supported education and training of "exceptional" children, and for affording them with the due process of law through suspension, expulsion, transfer, etc. -
Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act
This act guaranteed civil rights for the disabled in the context of federally funded institutions or any program or activity receiving Federal financial assistance. -
Education for All Handicapped Children's Act of 1975 (Public Law 94-142)
This act established the right of children with disabilities to receive a free, appropriate public education and provided funds to enable state and local education agencies to comply with the new requirements. -
EHA reauthorized as PL 99-457
This reauthorization additionally covers infants and toddlers below age 3 with disabilities, and providing for associated Individual Family Service Plans (IFSP), prepared documents to ensure individualized special service delivery to families of respective infants and toddlers. -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
The All Handicapped Children Avt of 1975 was reauthorized as Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), providing accountability to states and local school systems for educational services for handicapped students. -
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990
ADA barred discrimination in employment, publics services, and transportation, etc., including disabilities discrimination. -
No Child Left Behind Act
This act requirewd accountability for the academic performance of all school children, including those with disabilities. It called for 100% profiency and math by 2012. -
Assistive Technology Act of 2004
PL 108-364 provided support for school-to-work transition projects and created loan programs for the purchase of assistive technology devices. -
2012 NCLB enactment
By 2012 the NCLB Act called for 100% proficiency in reading and mathematics.
