Laws Dealing with Disability

  • Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children v. the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

    Ruling/Effect: The state of Pennsylvania has to provide free public education to individuals from ages 6 to 21 (Other states soon followed this with their own similar rulings/laws).
  • Mills v. the Board of Education of the District of Columbia

    Ruling/Effect: Schools have to have appropriate educational programs for all children based on their needs, insufficient funding is not an excuse to fail to do this
  • Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act

    Ruling/Effect: Individuals cannot be denied access to the benefits of any program receiving Federal financial assistance simply because of a disability
  • The Education of All Handicapped Children Act

    Ruling/Effect: Individuals with disabilities must receive a free appropriate public education, can be evaluated and given proper classifications for their disabilities, receive nondiscriminatory assessment, be placed in the least restrictive environment, receive an individualized education program, and parents must be given appropriate rights to participate
  • Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District, Westchester County, New York v. Amy Rowley

    Ruling/Effect: Services only need to be provided to individuals with disabilities to the extent that they benefit from the educational program in which they are involved
  • Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

    The renaming of the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975
  • Americans with Disabilities Act

    Ruling/Effect: Individuals with disabilities must have equal opportunity in “public accommodations, employment, transportation, telecommunications, and government” (Rapp & Arndt, 2012). Programs/establishments must provide service and access to benefits to individuals with disabilities even if the programs/establishments do not receive Federal financial assistance (this is a continuation of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973).