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1960 -First grader Ruby Bridges is the first African American to attend William Frantz Elementary School in New Orleans. She becomes a class of one as parents remove all Caucasian students from the school.
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In response to the large number of Cuban immigrant children arriving in Miami after the Cuban Revolution, Coral Way Elementary School starts the first bilingual and bicultural public school in the United States.
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Samuel A. Kirk uses the term "learning disability" at a Chicago conference on children with perceptual disorders. The term sticks, and in 1964, the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities, now the Learning Disabilities Association of America, is formed. Today, nearly one-half of all students in the U.S. who receive special education have been identified as having learning disabilities
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The Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) is passed on April 9. Part of Lyndon Johnson's "War on Poverty," it provides federal funds to help low-income students, which results in the initiation of educational programs such as Title I and bilingual education.
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The Equality of Educational Opportunity Study, often called the Coleman Report because of its primary author James S. Coleman, is conducted in response to provisions of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Its conclusion that African American children benefit from attending integrated schools sets the stage for school "busing" to achieve desegregation
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James Banks' book, Multicultural Education: Transformative Knowledge and Action, makes an important contribution to the growing body of scholarship regarding multiculturalism in education
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The case of Diana v. California State Board results in new laws requiring that children referred for possible special education placement be tested in their primary language
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Jean Piaget's book, The Science of Education, is published. His Learning Cycle model helps to popularize discovery-based teaching approaches, particularly in the sciences
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In the case of Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) v. Pennsylvania, the federal court rules that students with mental retardation are entitled to a free public education.
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The Refugee Act of 1980 is signed into law by President Jimmy Carter on March 18th. Building on the Immigration Act of 1965, it reforms immigration law to admit refugees for humanitarian reasons and results in the resettlement of more than three-million refugees in the United States including many children who bring special needs and issues to their classrooms.
