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Programs for children with learning disabilities became more common in the early 1940's. Many of these programs, however, were private or residential, and varies among and within states. It was difficult to find adequate special education programs. Most children with disabilities simply did not get special education help.
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In 1954, the U.S. Supreme Court passed a law stating that segregation had no place in public education. While this law was referring to equal rights of African-Americans, many parents of children with disabilities began filing lawsuits against their schools because their child was being discriminated against because of their disability.
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Congress enacted this law to address the inequality of underprivileged children. This provided resources to ensure that students with disabilities had access to quality education. Then in 1966, Congress amended the ESEA in order to help states in the “initiation, expansion, and improvement of programs and projects . . . for the education of handicapped children.”
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This act replaced the ESEA and established programs/grants geared towards encouraging states to create educational programs and resources for those with disabilities. However, this program did not include any mandates on the how the grants were to be used, nor did it show any improvement in the education of children with disabilities.
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PARC (Pennsylvania Assn. for Retarded Children v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania) dealt with the exclusion of children with disabilities from public schools. It was determined that educational decisions must include parental participation and a way to resolve disputes. Mills (Mills v. Board of Education of District of Columbia) involved the act of suspending, expelling and excluding children with disabilities from public schools in the District of Colombia.
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After PARC and Mills, Congress began investigating children with disabilities and discovered that millions were not receiving adequate education. Members of congress were so disturbed and moved that they began creating legislation in order to provide better education for those with disabilities.
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This law intended that all children with disabilities would “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.”
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This law was an update of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act. It increased the federal role in keeping schools accountable for all student success.
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The special education regulations are published in Volume 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations (CFR) beginning at Section 300.
In this, Congress turned the focus on accountability and improved outcomes by emphasizing reading, early intervention, and research-based instruction by requiring that special education teachers be highly qualified.
