-
Founded in 1817 in Hartford, Connecticut, by Thomas Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc. It was the first permanent school for deaf children in the U.S. Gallaudet and Clerc incorporated French Sign Language and the signs from their students to later create American Sign Language. -
The Perkins Institution was founded in 1829 in Boston, Massachusetts. Its founders were Dr. Samuel Howe and Dr. John Fisher, who created the first school for the blind in the United States. They provided programs not only in education but also in vocational training and independent living. They are currently the best in the world for educational services for blind and visually impaired students.
https://www.perkins.org/ -
Brown v. the Board of Education was a Supreme Court case in 1954 that declared racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. The Supreme Court decided that this violated the 14th Amendment because having separate educational spaces was not just. This ended up being a huge win for the civil rights movement and paving the way to equality between the two races.
https://youtu.be/wc12Zb20vOg?si=4SmJdWU67tmXNoLc -
The ESEA was signed into law in 1965 by President Lyndon B Johnson. This act gave federal funding to public education as part of the "War on Poverty". The purpose was to give funding to schools to be used towards resources for the school, use in special education, and for scholarships. This act also aided in holding accountability for the schools and helped create more opportunities in the education system. -
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was enacted as a federal civil rights law that removed the discrimination against people with disabilities where federally funded programs and activities were involved. It made so that programs and activities that had federal funding required to provide reasonable accommodations to disabled individuals, such as employment, housing, and education. This ensured that disabled individuals had equal rights compared to their peers. -
EAHCA is a federal law that requires public schools to provide an appropriate education to children with disabilities at no cost to the families. This helped establish concepts like zero reject, but also key principles that will later become IDEA. It also gave schools the responsibility to find students who were in need of special education and to provide them with services dependent on the needs of the child. -
The ADA was signed into federal law in 1990 by President George H.W. Bush. It was the world's first comprehensive law for individuals with disabilities. The law made it so that no discrimination can be had against an individual with disabilities in all areas of life. This act ensures that there are equal opportunities for disabled individuals and that employers and public places provide reasonable accommodations. -
IDEA was made into public law 94-142, where it ended up replacing the All Handicapped Children Act. The reason for the change was to reflect the shift to using person-first language that focused on the student rather than their disability. The goals of the previous act remained the same as to provide free, appropriate education to students with disabilities. It includes six principles: FAPE, appropriate evaluation, IEPs, LRE, parent participation, and due process. -
The NCLB reauthorized the ESEA and increased the role of the federal government in education. It requires schools to do annual reading and math tests to keep them accountable for the progress of their students. It also mandated that schools have highly qualified teachers to help bridge the achievement gap between different student groups. -
The AT Act is a federal law that provides funding to the states so that individuals with disabilities can have access to assistive technology devices to aid in education, employment, and everyday life. The AT Act also helps support numerous programs such as loan programs, financing, reutilization, and training. These devices can range from wheelchairs, adapted work tools, and speech-generating devices.