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In Brown vs. The Board of Education, the Supreme Court ruled that it was illegal to segregate students based on race. Having separate facilities, however “equal,” creates emotional and mental boundaries within minority student groups. After the ruling of this case, people began to pursue lawsuits against schools for segregating students with disabilities, feeling that it was an act of discrimination against such students.
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This law represents the educational front of Lyndon B. Johnson's “War on Poverty,” as it distributed federal funds to school districts with high percentages of low income families. These funds provided for a variety of important educational needs such as resources to support educational programs and instructional materials. Further amendments include in 1966 providing funds for the education of handicapped children and the 1970 enactment of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act.
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In 1971 in Pennsylvania, 14 children with disabilities were denied entrance into public schools as it was state law that schools were allowed to exclude children who had not developed the mental capacity of a five year old by the time they were old enough for first grade. The result was overturning the state law, requiring Pennsylvania to provide a free public education to all including those with intellectual disability. This inspired further suits against the exclusion of disabled students.
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This class action suit was on behalf of children with various disabilities in D.C. who had either been denied entrance to public education or were not provided appropriate services to meet their needs. The parents argued that the students' rights to an education were denied. The board was forced to follow the directions of a remedial plan to make certain that all children are provided for in public schools including those with disabilities. It helped to develop the EAHCA of 1975.
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The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 provided protection from discrimination for those with disabilities within all federally funded programs and federal agencies. Section 504 of the act is specifically directed towards prohibiting discrimination. This helped lead towards the Education of All Handicapped Children Act and providing protection against discrimination of children with disabilities within public education.
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Under the EAHCA, schools receiving federal funds became required to provide free and public education to students with disabilities as well as processes for evaluation, creating educational plans with parental input, and administrative procedures that would give parents an avenue for contesting schools' decisions regarding their children's education. Least Restrictive Environment was one of the provisions mandated by the law.
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The ADA provides protection against discrimination for individuals with disabilities in several areas including communications, public accommodations, employment, transportation, and access to local and state government programs and services, which would include educational programs and services. With this law it is now illegal for federally funded programs such as schools to discriminate against individuals with disabilities.
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Renamed Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the 1990 amendments to EHA include changing the referencing of handicapped children to children with disabilities, expanding services to children with traumatic brain injury and autism, expanding "special education" to include services provided outside the traditional school setting, expanding definitions of "related services," providing transitional services, and defining assistive technology and services.
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A newer reauthorization of the ESEA of 1965, NCLB provided additional federal funding for underprivileged schools and disadvantaged students including students in poverty, minorities, students in special education, and English as a Second Language (ESL) students. It required reasonable accommodations to be provided to students with IEPs and 504s for statewide tests, and before students with disabilities were excluded from state tests.
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This is the reauthorized statute of IDEA which focuses on the improved instruction of students in special education. Schools became required to establish goals for children with disabilities that were coherent with goals and standards set for non-disabled students. As part of aligning IDEA with previous education acts like NCLB, special education teachers became required to meet the standards set by NCLB. The disproportionate rate of minority students in special education was also addressed.
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The newest reauthorization of the ESEA of 1965, ESSA put more accountability on state governments for the quality of education for all students. For students with disabilities, they are allowed accommodations on all annual state tests, states are required to set ambitious goals for these students, a national center for reading for students with disabilities was created, and Universal Design for Learning was endorsed with states encouraged to expand personalized learning.
