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The American School for the Deaf is founded by Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet and Laurent Clerc in Hartford, CT. ASD is the first school for the Deaf founded in the United States and represents one of the earliest efforts to provide special education services to a disabled group.
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This landmark Supreme Court ruling ended racial segregation in public education by ruling that separate is not equal and laid the groundwork for the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education settings.
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These District Court rulings found that states could not deny public education to students with disabilities without due process and established the need for more substantial legislation to protect the rights of students with disabilities to education.
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The most comprehensive disability rights legislation prior to the IDEA, the Rehabilitation Act stipulated that any entity receiving Federal funding (including schools) could not discriminate on the basis of disability if the individual was otherwise qualified and was further obligated to make reasonable accommodations for individuals with disabilities.
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In response to recent rulings like PARC v. Pennsylvania and Mills v. Board of Education, the US Congress hearings on existing special education services provided a platform for stakeholders to advocate for Federal legislation that would require states to provide consistent special education services. The hearings also demonstrated that states could not provide these services without financial support from the Federal government.
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The EAHCA stated that states providing public education must do so equally by providing a free and appropriate public education to students with disabilities in order to receive Federal funding for special education. As an extension of Brown v. the Board of Education, students with disabilities were provided the opportunity to attend a public school rather than being confined to institutional care.
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Students at Gallaudet University, the only university for the Deaf in the world, protested the Board of Trustee's decision to appoint a hearing individual as the next university president over an equally well-qualified Deaf candidate. The hearing candidate eventually withdrew her acceptance, and I. King Jordan became the first Deaf president of Gallaudet. The protest drew attention to the rights of disabled persons to self-determination.
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The ADA extended the protections of the Rehabilitation Act to the private sector, including the removal of barriers that prevent buildings, including schools, from being accessible to individuals with disabilities. The EAHCA's name was amended to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to align with the ADA's name and remove outdated language, like "handicapped," that is now considered objectionable.
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This amendment, aimed at clarifying provisions for student expectations and educational outcomes, stipulated that students receiving special education services are to be provided access to the general education curriculum in addition to being provided transition services to aid their eventual transition into adulthood.
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Besides reauthorizing Title I protections to primary and secondary schools in low-income communities, the NCLB act required states to develop educational standards that placed high expectations on all students and mandated statewide assessments to measure and report progress. These expectations applied to special education and general education.
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The IDEA was amended to bring it into alignment with the expectations of the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. The amendment similarly emphasized high expectations and emphasized the inclusion of students with disabilities in general education to the maximum extent appropriate. In order to support high expectations, the amendment integrated the use of research-based strategies, early reading programs, positive behavior interventions, and response to intervention.
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The ESSA addressed perceived weaknesses of the NCLB. Most notably, the ESSA removed the NCLB's controversial annual yearly progress requirement that tied Federal funding to student growth. Significantly for special education, the ESSA mandated universal design for learning in public education.