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Famous Enlightenment philosopher Jean Jacques Rousseau published his treatise, Emile, On Education. In this book, Rousseau postures that learning best occurs when in agreement when the child’s cognitive speed is taken into account, with minimal impact from society and wealth. -
b. The Institution Nationale des Jeunes Aveugles was founded by Valentin Hauy, which is recognized to be the first school focused on the education of blind people. It is at this institution, that Louis Braille attended as a student and taught as a professor, where he created his own reading and writing system for the blind – the eponymous Braille system -
Reverend Thomas Gallaudet implemented the American Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb (now called the American School for the Deaf), in Hartford, Connecticut. This school is recognized as the first successful school for the deaf
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The Department of Special Education was created by the National Education Association. This department section pertained solely to the training of educators of students with disabilities. -
New York University included in the courses offered by the school a training program for special education teachers. -
b. In 1908 the French researcher Alfred Binet, along with Theodore Simon, created the intelligence scale: a standardized intelligence test in order to identify ‘mentally retarded children’. Later, the test would be applied to the American standards, and the idea of the Intelligence Quotient was introduced in 1916 by Lewis Terman, renaming the test from the Simon-Binet scale to the Stanford-Binet scale.
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b. Elizabeth Farrell founded and became the first president of the International Council for Exceptional Children, later known as the CEC. The CEC is now the largest professional organization dedicated to improving the educational success of students with disabilities. This Council plays a key role in pushing legislation to protect those with disabilities.
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Samuel A. Kirk opened the Institute for Research on Exceptional Children, the first institution for research on exceptional children at the University of Illinois. This institute laid the groundwork for research on individuals with learning disabilities. -
This landmark U.S. Supreme Court case determined that it was unlawful to discriminate against a group of individuals for arbitrary reasons such as race. The Court determined that quality education is fundamental and should be afforded to all citizens equally.
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President Eisenhower signed Public Law 85-926 into action. This legislation provided grants to higher education institutions (colleges and universities) to create and implement courses specialized in training preservice special education teachers prepared to enter the classroom -
Congress enacted the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) in 1965 to address the inequality of educational opportunities for underprivileged children. This landmark legislation provided resources to ensure that disadvantaged students had access to quality education. -
Two pivotal cases, Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Mills v. Board of Education, District of Columbia started a flurry of litigation regarding the education of children with disabilities. The litigation led to federal legislation in 1975 for students with disabilities.
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The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was signed into law in 1975 by President Gerald Ford. This legislation is considered the “Bill of Rights” for children with disabilities and their families. The five primary tenets of the legislation include providing free appropriate public special education, the least restrictive learning environment for the student, the creation of an IEP, procedural due process, nondiscriminatory assessment, and parental participation. -
Amendments to PL 94-142 changed the name to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). These amendments included modifications to strengthen requirements for properly integrating students with disabilities, the requirement for students to have a transition plan into adult life by age 16, added social work and rehabilitation services into related services for the student, and included autism and traumatic brain injury as categories of disability. -
Ten additional amendments to IDEA are made. These include changes to the previous law regarding discipline, participation in the general education curriculum and state assessments, transition planning, assistive technology, related services, and the structure of the IEP. -
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act was enacted in 2002 aiming to improve student educational outcomes through the implementation of standardized testing to measure proficiency and set annual targets for schools to meet. NCLB required schools to include students with disabilities in statewide assessments and measure their progress, with the intention of ensuring that all students, including those with special needs, were making adequate academic progress.
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Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 was implemented with the goal of aligning IDEA 1997 with No Child Left Behind. Under IDEIA, the determination of specific learning disabilities no longer relies solely on IQ discrepancies. Significant changes to special education eligibility and evaluation were made including the use of research-based interventions such as RTI being used as part of special education evaluation. -
NCLB gets a facelift with the reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA), removing highly contested portions of the legislature about accountability. The revised statute, entitled the Every Student Succeeds Act, was signed into law by President Obama on December 10, 2015
