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CEC Created
The International Council for Exceptional Children is started by a group of educators who wanted to improve the education of students with disabilities. -
Brown v. Topeka Board of Education
United States Supreme Court case which declared segregation in schools unconstitutional. No student could be denied an education based on race. This court case overturned the "separate but equal" decision in Plessy v. Furgeson in 1896. -
ESEA
The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was the first step in the legislation for special education. This act strives to lessen the achievement gap by providing equal educational opportunities to all students. Although this legislation did not mention students with disabilities specifically, it paved the way for IDEA to be enacted. -
Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia
This was a court case filed on the behalf of seven students with disabilities whose rights to a FAPE were being denied. The DC Board of Ed's defense was that providing services for these students was too expensive for the district. The courts decided in favor of the students and FAPE was provided. -
PARC v. the Commonwealth of PA
The Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) advocated for children with disabilities to recieve a public education.
This is where the concept of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) came from. The court ruled that school districts must admit all children with disabilities, regardless of cost to the district. Not only were students with disabilities provided FAPE, but they were to be placed in the least restrictive environments (LRE) possible based on their disability. -
FERPA
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act gave both students and parents more control over their own personal records. As a result of the act, parents are now allowed access to any information collected on their child by the school district. -
EAHCA cont.
EAHCA was also important in special education because it required each student with a disability to have an Individualized Education Program (IEP). An IEP has specific accomodations and services that will benefit a student's unique needs.
This legislation also gave parents the opportunity to be involved in the planning for thier child. Parents are now asked to be at the IEP meetings and are able to give feedback and suggestions to advocate for their child. -
EAHCA
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was the first version of what we now call IDEA. This act was monumental for speciald education. It mandated that all public schools provide a free and appropriate public education to all students with disabilities ages 3-21. It continued to stipulate that students with disabilities must be educated in the least restrictive environment. Students with disabilities will have an education that resembles students without disabilities as much as possible. -
Rowley v. Hendrick Hudson CSD
Amy Rowley was a deaf student newly enrolled in kindergarten. Amy's parents were involved in her IEP meeting, where they insisted Amy have a sign language interpretter in all classes. The school as well as the Supreme Court disagreed. They stated that because Amy was passing and improving, even though not to her full potential, she was still being successful in her education and did not need further accomodations of an interpretter. -
Tatro v Irving Idependent School District
Amber Tatro was an 8 year old girl born with Spina Bifida. Amber was evaluated and an IEP drafted that provided her with services such as PT and OT, but did not require someone at the school be trained in clean intermitten catherization (CIC). Amber needed to have this performed every 4 hours because she could not empty her bladder on her own. -
Tatro cont
The Court of Appeals overturned the original decision to not provide Amber with someone trained in CIC. Amy's parents and the courts argued that although this medical condition did not necessarily effect Amy's education, her placement did. If no one at the school would provide Amy with the help she needed, she would need to go to another facility, which would be violating her right to a Free Appropriate Public Education in the Least Restrictive Environment. -
HCPA
A revision was made to EAHCA called the Handicapped Children's Protection Act. This addition to EAHCA increased the rights of parents in the special education process. Now parents could be awarded reasonable attorney fees if they thought their child's IEP rights were not being met by their school. This was a huge step in giving more power to parents in the decisions made about educating their children. -
Honig v. Doe
This case argued that a child could not be suspended based on behavior that is a result of their disability. The Supreme Court agreed and required that if a student had a case of misconduct being tried, they were to "stay put" in their current school environment until a decision was made regarding the most appropriate place to educate the child. -
IDEA
EAHCA is renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act with hopes to change the vocabulary to showcase the individual and not just their disability. This revision added Autism and Traumatic Brain Injury to the list of distinct disabilities so students wtih these disabilities could not recieve services. Related services were now to also include social work and rehabilitation counseling. Prior to this, these services were not viewed as being beneficial to the student's education. -
IDEA cont.
Another major revision made was that students with disabilities were not offered transition services starting at 16 years old. This means that students will recieve help in planning their post secondary goals including employment, housing, college and other daily living skills. IDEA also authorized school districts to purchase and lease adaptive equipment necessary to increase a student's educational opportunities. -
IDEA revised
ADD and ADHD are now added to the list of diagnoses that recieve special services. Students are now given transition services beginning at age 14. These revisions also stated that students who were suspended or expelled still need to be provided with the accomodations on their IEPs. Assistive technology must also be provided if it will benefit the child's education. Schools must also establish clear performance goals in each student's IEP to show what is expected of the student. -
NCLB
No Child Left Behind is a legislation written to increase accountability of our schools and teachers. Under this legislation students will be given standardized testing each year to show the school's Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP). If a school does not reach their AYP, their federal funding could be decreased or they could be put on a school improvement plan. The main goal of this legislation is to increase our students abilities in core subjects of math and reading. -
NCLB for students
This means an increased accountability for lower performing students or those who are close to passing. These students are now placed in RTI programs to help them be more successful on standardized tests. Unfortunately, NCLB does not grant anything for students who are passing or excelling on these tests. NCLB also does little to aide students who are performing far below the passing point because it is not concerned with progress, just with passing the standardized tests used in ranking schools -
NCLB for Teachers
For teachers and schools NCLB means an increased accountability in student grades. All teachers must be highly qualified under NCLB, which means they hold a valid state certificate in the content they are teaching. If required gains are not made, teachers and schools could experience a decrease in funding or other consuquences. -
IDEA revised
In 2004, IDEA was revised further. Teachers must now include in the IEP how and when progress will be measured to show if a goal has been met or not. Short terms goals must all be included for students who are alternately assessed and transition services written in for all students by the age of 16. Students will be re-evaluated at least every three years, but not more than once a year. This is to make any changes needed in the IEP of that student. -
IDEA revised cont.
After NCLB, another major revision was that all students must participate in state assessments regardless of their disability. Students with disabilities must be given their proper accomodations and severely disabled students who are granted alternate assessment must be assessed this way.
Students may also be identified for special services if a school has provided with them a Right to Intervention (RTI) program and they need further assistance. -
References
Lecture notes retrieved on July 1, 2012 from: https://lc.gcu.edu/learningPlatform/user/users.html?operation=home&classId=d2abf65b-45fa-4c34-8af0-e9a7e9209994#/learningPlatform/loudBooks/loudbooks.html?viewPage=current&operation=innerPage¤tTopicname=IDEA%20and%20NCLB&topicMaterialId=43ba41a0-ce0f-4640-bdde-446c6d349ae2&contentId=78048e74-2f48-4f83-8ce3-90a74c1ba64f& -
References cont.
Turnbull, A., Turnbull, R. & Wehmeyer, M. (2010). Exceptional lives: special education in today's schools (6th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. www.wrightslaw.com
