Laws and Legislation Concerning People with Disabilities

By amwilk24

  • Title VI

    Congress added Title VI to the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 creating a Bureau of Education for the Handicapped.

  • PARC v. Pennsylvania/ Mills v. D.C. Board of Education

    These two supreme court decisions apply the equal protection argument to students with disabilities. The courts take the position that children with disabilities have an equal right to access education as their non-disabled peers.

  • Rehabilitation Act of 1973

    This national law protects qualified individuals from discrimination based on their disability.

  • The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)

    Parents are allowed to have access to all personally identifiable information collected, maintained, or used by a school district regarding their child.

  • EAHCA now known as IDEA is enacted

    Before 1975, children with disabilities were mostly denied an education solely on the basis of their disabilities. EAHCA mandated all school districts to educate students with disabilities.

  • American Coalition of Citizens with Disabilities

    An important cross-disabiltity rights organization that pulled together disability rights groups representing individuals who are blind, deaf, physically disabled, and developmentally delayed.

  • Title VII of the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1978

    This established the first federal funding of Centers for Independent Living (CILs) and created the National Council of the Handicapped under the U.S. Department of Education.

  • The EAHCA adds the Handicapped Children’s Protection Act

    This amendment makes clear that students and parents have rights under EAHCA (now IDEA) and Section 504.

  • The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is enacted

    ADA adopts the Section 504 regulations as part of the ADA statute. In turn, numerous “504 Plans” for individual students start to become more common in school districts.

  • IDEA reauthorized

    This amendment calls for students with disabilities to be included in on state and district-wide assessments. Also, Regular Education Teachers are now required to be a member of the IEP team.

  • No Child Left Behind is enacted

    This law calls for all students, including students with disabilities, to be proficient in math and reading by the year 2014.

  • IDEA reauthorized

    There are several changes from the 1997 reauthorization. The biggest changes call for more accountability at the state and local levels, as more data on outcomes is required. Another change involves school districts providing adequate instruction and intervention for students to help keep them out of special education.

  • Disability Pride Parade

    This was the first ever disability pride parade, held in Chicago, along with a few other communities around the U.S.