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The 1954 Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education served as the foundational legal precedent for securing educational rights for students with disabilities. By ruling that "separate educational facilities are inherently unequal," the court laid the groundwork for future civil rights litigation and legislation that challenged the systemic exclusion of children with disabilities from public schools. -
The Civil Rights Act of 1964 established the fundamental principle that all students are entitled to equal access to education, which served as a crucial legal foundation for the modern special education system. While the act itself did not specifically address disability, it outlawed discrimination in federally funded programs, including public schools, and created the legal groundwork that disability rights advocates later used to challenge the exclusion of students with disabilities. -
The initial ESEA created a legitamate basis for later special education laws by establishing a framework for addressing inequities in education for children from low-income families. -
Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was a landmark 1972 federal court case that established the right to a free public education for children with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The case led directly to federal legislation and set a legal precedent that ensured educational rights for disabled students across the country. -
Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia was a landmark 1972 federal court case that established the right to a free, publicly funded education for all children with disabilities. The ruling set a precedent that a lack of funding could not be used as an excuse to exclude students with disabilities from public education. -
The Education of the Handicapped Act of 1970 (Public Law 91-230) was a federal law that established a grant program to encourage and assist states in developing educational programs for children with disabilities. It built upon earlier, smaller-scale grant programs introduced in the 1960s to support states in educating students with disabilities. -
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA), enacted in 1975, was a landmark civil rights law that mandated public schools to provide a "free appropriate public education" (FAPE) to children with disabilities. Before the EAHCA was passed, millions of children with disabilities were denied access to public education or received inadequate services. The law established a new legal framework to protect their rights and ensure access to a quality education. -
The Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA) Amendments of 1986 extended the rights and protections of the EHA to infants, toddlers, and preschool children with disabilities. The legislation created landmark programs for early intervention and preschool services, recognizing the importance of addressing disabilities at the earliest stages of a child's life. -
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) of 1990 was a reauthorization and renaming of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) of 1975. This amendment established the legal and civil rights for students with disabilities to receive a free, appropriate public education (FAPE). -
The No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act of 2002 was a bipartisan federal law that significantly reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965. The law aimed to close achievement gaps by holding schools accountable for student performance through standardized testing. It also mandated that schools measure the progress of special education students and report their test results as a distinct subgroup, forcing schools to pay more attention to their performance. -
This law mandates that all eligible children with disabilities have access to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) that meets their unique needs and prepares them for further education, employment, and independent living. -
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA) provided a major, one-time influx of federal funding for special education programs authorized under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The act infused billions of dollars into states and local school districts to mitigate the effects of the Great Recession while ensuring that children with disabilities continued to receive essential services.