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Vocational Rehabilitation Act
This is the event that first defined what a handicapped person was and what an appropriate education was. Without these definitions, many children could have missed out on the help they needed to receive a great education. -
Education for All Handicapped Children Act
This is the original act that provided for the education of students with disabilities. It required schools to use IEPs, which helped to provide students with the exact help they needed in the classroom, It also defined least restrictive environment, which allowed children to be included in general classrooms when appropriate. -
Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments
This required states to provide help to children that were not yet of school age. These early interventions that were now required could benefit children by teaching them skills that they might not have developed on their own. This could lead to increased time in a general classroom as they enter school. -
Honig v. Doe
This case ruled that schools could not expel students for behaviors that were related to their disability, specifically emotional or behavioral disorders. This allows students that may have otherwise been expelled from multiple schools to continue on in a classroom setting, which may help them to gain social skills they otherwise would lack. -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
IDEA replaced EAHCA and added many new components to special education in order to benefit students with disabilities. This included aspects such as adding autism and brain injury to disability categories, requiring bilingual education, adding transitional programs, establishing people-first language, and adding social work, rehabilitation, and assistive technology services. -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The ADA provided for equality in employment, transportation, public services, accommodations, and telecommunications for people with disabilities. It also added AIDS to part of the definition for disability. -
IDEA Amendments
These amendments guaranteed that all students with disabilities continued to receive support, even if they had been expelled. It also added provisions that placed more responsibility on the schools to make sure that the general curriculum was accessible to all students, and that students with disabilities were taking statewide assessment tests. It also expanded the role of a special education teacher to include helping general students. -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act
This is the most recent set of amendments to IDEA, and it allows school districts to use the response-to-intervention model to help determine if a child has a specific learning disability without needing a high discrepency between intellectual ability and achievement. It also raised the standards for special education licensure and increased federal funding for early intervention services for students that do not need special education.
