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American School for the Deaf
The American School for the deaf was first called the American Asylum for the education of the Deaf and Dumb. This was the first school for disabled children anywhere in the Western Hemisphere. -
School for the Blind opens
The Perkins Institution was founded in Boston, Massachusetts. It was the first of its kind for people with mental disabilities. Individuals were required to live and learn at the school just like a boarding school. -
Compulsory Education Law
Rhode Island passes a law mandating compulsory education for all children. This means that all children are required by law to receive and for governments to provide. -
Compulsory Education Law
Massachusetts passes the first compulsory education law to make sure that children of poor immigrants get "civilized" and learn obedience and restraint, so they make good workers -
Columbia Institution
U.S. congress allows Columbia Institution for the Deaf, Dumb, and Blind to grant college degrees. It was the first college in the world established for people with disabilities. -
Massachusetts Reform School at Westboro.
Massachusetts Reform School at Westboro opens, which combines the education and juvenile justice systems -
Systematic efforts
William Torrey Harris, superintendent of public schools for St. Louis, institutes the earliest systematic efforts in public schools to educate gifted students. -
Francis Galton's seminal work, Hereditary Genius
Francis Galton's, Hereditary Genius, was published indicating that intelligence was passed through successive generations, He studied over 400 British men and concluded that through statistical methods that intelligence was derived from heredity and natural selection. -
Association of Instructors of the Blind
Comprehensive educational programs for the hearing and visually impaired students were offered by the School for the Deaf and the Blind. -
Plessy v. Ferguson
1896 The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Plessy v. Ferguson that Louisiana has the right to require "separate but equal" railroad cars for blacks & whites. The federal government officially recognizes segregation as legal resulting in southern states pass laws requiring racial segregation in public schools. -
Worster, Massachesetts
The first special school for gifted children was opened in Worster, Massachusetts -
Binet-Simon tests
French researchers, Binet and Simon, develop a series of tests (Binet-‐Simon) to identify children of inferior intelligence for the purpose of separating them from normally functioning children for placement in special classrooms. Their notion of mental age revolutionizes the science of psychological testing by capturing intelligence in a single numerical outcome -
Mandatory Attendance
Massachusetts enacts the first mandatory attendance law. In which all states would follow suit by 1918. -
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William S Gray, studies on reading behavior and achievement
William S. Gray and colleagues at the University of Chicago published numerous studies on reading behavior and achievement -
Council for Exception Children
Council for Exception Children (CEC) formed to inform parents, teachers, and administration about the education of individuals with disabilities -
Brown v. Board of education
Brown v, Board of Education, This was a consolidated case that fought for desegregation of all public school systems in the United States and separate but equal was unconstitutional. This was the being for litigation and legislation regarding students with disabilities. -
Pennsylvania Association for Retarded citizens v. Pennsylvania and Mills V Board of education
The Federal court decided that children with mental disabilities would be provided with free and appropriate public education. These cases provided a legal standing to challenge officials denying equal opportunity. They brought to attention that students with disabilities should not be excluded and should have equal protection under the law. -
504
President Nixon prohibits discrimination in any entity receiving federal funding. This plan mandates individualized plans for eligible disabled students who need accommodations or modifications. Known today as a 504 plan which provides students with individualized plans in the least restrictive environment. -
'A Nation at Risk'
As other nations begin to embrace Progressive Education, The U.S. National Commission on Excellence in Education publishes 'A Nation at Risk,' which emphasized quantitative performance measurement in schools. It was a period of reforms, centered around testing regimes. -
The American Disability Act
This law prohibits discrimination by an employer, services received by the state and local governments in places of public accommodation, transportation, and telecommunications. -
2001 No Child Left Behind Act
Federally-mandated, standards-based education reform and increased accountability within the schools. -
MIT
MIT Media Lab and One Laptop per child released the XO-1(the $100 laptop). This program was designed to be distributed to children in developing countries around the world to learn, explore, and express their creativity.