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Mills vs. Board of Education of the District of Columbia
This landmark case legally reaffirmed that children with exceptionalities have a right to a free public education. Along with the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania case, this proceeding led to the original passage of EAHCA and IDEA (Bryant, table 1.2). -
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act
National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities - Section 504One of the most important amendments passed on the Rehabilitation Act in 1973, Section 504 guaranteed the rights of people with exceptionalities to attend school and have free access to facilities. Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) must be provided for each person who qualifies as having a disability as defined by 504. This is very important because it sent the message that people with exceptionalities should be guaranteed the same rights as people without exceptionalities (Wood, p.7). -
Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA)
EAHCA reasserted the rights of peoples with exceptionalities and mandated that the state must provide for the FAPE of students with exceptionalities and (if necessary) modify their facilities for easy access to them. When reauthorized in 1986, the act was extended to infants and toddlers, and developed Individualized Family Service Plans, or IFSPs (Wood, p. 8-9). -
Perkins Act
The Perkins Act allocated 10% of all vocational training funding to go toward students with exceptionalities and applied the concept of the Least Restrictive Environment to vocational training facilities (Scruggs, The Inclusive Classroom, p. 11). -
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities - ADAThe Americans with Disabilities Act had a broad impact on society and extended the rights guaranteed by Section 504 to Americans with exceptionalities in the public spectrum. In terms of education, it made it necessary for schools to become handicapped-accessible in terms of construction for students with impairments to mobility, sight, hearing, and other health issues (Wood, p.19). -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities - IDEAThe EAHCA underwent a name change in 1990 and became IDEA. Other changes included a mandatory transition service plan for SPED students by at least age 16, the addition of autism and traumatic brain injuries as specialized categories of exceptionalities, and a bolstering of the Least Restrictive Environment criteria (Wood, p.10-11). -
Reauthorization of IDEA
The reauthorization of IDEA in 1997 had a number of changes added to it. Most important to education, it developed assessments and intervention plans for students with behavioral challenges, and added ADHD as a health impairment. It also integrated transition plans into IEPs, and allowed students with exceptionalities to be a part of the general education process (Wood, p. 10-14). -
No Child Left Behind (NCLB)
National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities - NCLBNo Child Left Behind, although controversial in some ways, attempted to include as many students with exceptionalities as possible in the general education testing program and reinforce notions of integration and inclusion in the classroom. Students with severe exceptionalities can take alternative assessments more appropriate for their cognition (Wood, p. 19-20). -
Re-reauthorization of IDEA
The re-reauthorization of IDEA called for the development of professionals focused on Special Education Students as highly-qualified in their field. It also changed the ways in which exceptionalities were identified with more empathetic vocabulary toward the person with exceptionalities; i.e. the person was given priority over their exceptionality in basic vocabulary (Bryant, table 1.3). -
Assistive Technology Act (ATA)
National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities - ATAThe Assistive Technology Act helped individuals with exceptionalities obtain technology that could help them succeed in transitioning from school to work and gave free demonstrations on how devices worked. It also allocated money to schools so that they could provide as much support as possible so that students with exceptionalities could succeed (Bryant, table 1.3).
