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Early 1900s
Early 1900s – 1.75 million of 80% of American children with disabilities did not have access or were refused enrollement to educational services. Over 400,000 people were living in American institutions. -
Period: to
Educational Rights for Children with Disabilities
1960-1975 - Between the mid 1960’s and 1975 state legislatures, the federal courts, and the U.S. Congress spelled out strong educational rights for children with disabilities.o 45 state legislatures passed laws mandating, encouraging, and/or funding special education programs.o Federal courts, interpreting the equal protection and due process guarantees of the Fourteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, ruled that schools could not discriminate on the basis of disability and that parents -
President's Panel on Mental Retardation
1961 – JFK created the President’s Panel on Mental Retardation to meet the wishes of parents and advocate groups and brought the educational needs of children with disabilities to the public eye. -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
1965 – LBJ signed the Elementary and Secondary Education Act which provided funding for primary education and expanded access to public education for children with disabilities and created a Bureau of Education for the Handicapped (later renamed to the OSEP). -
Christmas in Purgatory
1966 – Christmas in Purgatory by Burton Blatt and Fed Kaplan documented conditions at state institutions for people with developmental disabilities. Photographs depicted the conditions of people in institutions. As a result, Wolf Wolfensberger promoted deinstitutionalization in the US. -
Nurture over Nature
1968 – Gunnar Dybwad emphasized nurture over nature. “The problem was not that people with disabilities could not learn, but rather, educators did not yet know how to teach them”. Every human being has the ability and right to learn. -
BEH
1970 - As separate programs for the disabled—and earmarked portions of general education programs—proliferated, the BEH (Bureau for the Educaiton of the Handicapped) was created and recommended that many existing federal programs be codified into a more comprehensive act (EHA). -
P.A.R.C. and Mills Cases
1973 - All of these protections were eventually incorporated into Public Law 94–142 by Congress. The P.A.R.C. and Mills cases caused a flurry of litigation. By 1973, more than 30 federal court decisions had upheld the principles of P.A.R.C. and Mills. Both cases dealt with the exclusion of mentally retarded or "exceptional" children from public schools. -
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
1973 - The educational rights of students with disabilities are also ensured by two other federal laws: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Amendments of 1973). Section 504 is a civil rights law not an education law. These state laws provided partial funding and required local school districts to offer special education to children with disabilities. By 1973, some 45 states had passed some form of legislation for educating children with disabilities. -
FERPA
1974 – FERPA (Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act) gave families access to their educational records and some control over disclosure of information. -
EHA - FAPE
Introduced the concepts of FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education) and due process rights. -
EHA - IEP and LRE
IEP (Individualized Education Program) and LRE (Least Restrictive Environment) were a part of EHA and provided assistance to schools who provide education of all children with disabilities. -
EHA
1975 – due to small number of children with disabilities who were being educated in public school, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) (later renamed IDEA) was passed. EHA: established a right to public education for all children regardless of disability -
"Education for All"
1978 - Only after Public Law 94–142 became effective in 1978 and, in several states, after federal and state court cases, did “education for all” policies become a fact. -
Spreading Awareness for Families
1989 - survey conducted by Louis Harris and Associates for the International Center for the Disabled found that 61% of the parents surveyed knew little or nothing about their rights under Public Law 94–142 and Section 504. -
ADA
1990 - Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Section 504 is a civil rights law not an education law. Because Section 504 and the ADA offer more remedies to parents than does the IDEA, these laws have been the main vehicles for litigation during the past few years. -
IDEA
1990 – reamed EHA to the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA). IDEA: requires schools to provide individualized or special education for children with qualifying disabilities. Included transportation services, IEPs with performance areas, measurable goals, statements of services/accommodations, inclusion of a regular education teacher, state assessment testing and increased eligibility. -
IDEA
IDEA amended and renewed. -
NCLB
2001 – NCLB (No Child Left Behind) called for all students, including students with disabilities, to be proficient in math and reading by the year 2014. -
IDEA and NCLB
2004 – IDEA amended again to align with current legislation such as NCLB. -
ADAAA
2008 – ADAAA (Americans with Disabilities Amendments Act) makes important changes to the definition of the term “disability” by retaining the ADA’s basic definition of “disability” as an impairment that substantially limits one or more life activities, a record of an impairment, or being regarded as having an impairment.
