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Connecticut Asylum for the Education and Instruction of Deaf and Dumb Persons opens in Hartford, Connecticut.
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Perkins Institution for the Blind opened by Samuel Gridley Howe.
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Braille code is first published.
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Dr. Howe establishes experimental school for feebleminded youth in Massachusetts.
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American Printing House for the Blind is established.
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National Deaf Mute College is established, later to be renamed Gallaudet University.
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Formal training for teachers of blind persons begins at Columbia University; Alexander Graham Bell introduces the term special education
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College-level training for teachers of students with intellectual disabilities begins.
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Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon publish their intelligence test, the basis for modern IQ testing.
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Segregated classes in the public schools are established as viable alternatives to instructing children with disabilities; the term emotional disturbance comes into use.
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The term mentally retarded is introduced; the term gifted appears in the professional literature.
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Council for Exceptional Children is founded.
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Leo Kanner identifies the characteristics of children with autism.
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Dr. Hans Asperger identifies children with characteristics that later would come to be called Asperger syndrome.
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Willowbrook State School (NY) opened as a facility for children with intellectual disabilities. After medical scandals and an expose about its horrible conditions, it was closed in 1987
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U.S. Supreme Court hands down decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
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Samuel A. Kirk introduces the term learning disabilities.
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B. Blatt and F. Kaplan publish Christmas in Purgatory, a photographic expose of life in institutions for those with intellectual disabilities. The widespread publicity it received led to significant changes in law and policy.
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Congress provides funding to disseminate best practices for special education by adding Title VI to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
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P.L. 94-142, amendments to the 1974 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA), is enacted.
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Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is enacted; EAHCA is amended and renamed the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). -
IDEA is amended, adding provisions related to transition services, participation by general education teachers, and discipline.
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No Child Left Behind Act increases accountability for outcomes for all students and requires that they are taught by highly qualified teachers.
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Reauthorization of IDEA raises standards for quality instruction for students with disabilities, elaborates on parent involvement and discipline, and defines highly qualified for special education teachers.
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President Obama signs Rosa's Law which changes federal language usage from mental retardation to intellectual disability.
