History of Special Education Law

By hannahcogdill
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    History of Special Education Law

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Before 1954, schools were separate for Whites and African Americans. This case included the finding that separate schools, materials, and teachers were not equal. This case led to the belief that all people regardless of race, gender, or disability have the right to an education.

  • Pennsylvania Association of Retarded Citizens (PARC) v. the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

    A group of families in Pennsylvania challenged the exclusion of clhildren with intellectual disabilities. The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was sued for equal rights to education for children with developmental disabilities. They decided to work with PARC and reach an agreement. It was ruled unconstitutional to deny any child with developmental disabilities who is of compulsory school age access to free public education.

  • Mills v. Board of Education of District of Columbia

    This case involved many children who were removed from school due to behavior problems and other disabilities. In 1972, as many as 18,000 of the 22,000 students with disabilities in the District of Colmbia were beign excluded, suspended, expelled, resigned, and transferred form regular public schools without due process. These children were to be let back into school, as well as all children entitled to admission and free tuition in the public schol system.

  • Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973

    This act required all agencies that accepted federal funding to provide equal opportunities to persons with disabilities. This section states that no handicapped individual should be descriminated against because of his or her handicap.

  • The Education of All Handicapped Children Act (EHC)

    The purpose of this act was that the children with disabilities were not benifiting from their education because of undetected disabilities. This includes FAPE, where all students must be provided equal access and opportunity in their public, neighborhood school. The zero reject rule states that school personnel do not have the right to decide that any student will not benefit from instruction in the public school setting.

  • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

    The new name for the EHC. This law has been reauthorized to provide varios provisions as needs arise.

  • Americans with Disabilities Act

    The ADA gave civil rights protections of race, color, sex, national origin, age, and religion. The ADA guaranteed that persons with disabilities would have equal opportunity in all public accommodations, employment, transportation, telecommunications, and government.

  • IDEA Reauthorization of 1997

    This provision was added reguarding behavior infractions. IF a student behaves in a way that is unacceptable or dangerous, it must be determined whether the behavior is a manifestation of the student's disability. If so, the student cannot be expelled from school, instead, a change of placement needs to be investigated.

  • IDEA Reauthorization of 2004

    Renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act and added an option for districts to use a response to intervention (RTI) model for determining if a student has a learnign disability, rather than a discrepancy model.