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First Permanent School for the Deaf
The first permanent school for the Deaf was established in Hartford, Connecticut, allowed for specialized education of a population. Mason Cogswell had a class for seven students including his daughter, Alice Cogswell, with Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. -
Invention of Braille
Braille was invested by Louis Braille at the age of 16. He was completely blind. It consisted of 6 dots arranged in two parallel rows, each set of rows representing a letter. This allowed for up to 64 variations, enough for all letters and punctuation. This system made it easier to just feel the configuration dots, making reading for the blind faster and easier. -
Beattie v. Board of Education
The Wisconsin Supreme Court ruled that a student with a disability could be excluded from school even though the student's academic progress was normal. -
Movement for Compulsory Public Education
It started with the Smith-Towner Bill. This bill would eventually start the National Education Association and provide federal funds to public schools. This law requires children to attend public or state-accredited private school for a certain period of time. -
Brown vs Board of Education
Supreme court describes the emotional impact that segregation has on children and moves to rule to end segregation in landmark case. The significance of this was that parents of children with disabilities were able to bring suit against districts for excluding their children. -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
Enacted by Congress to address the inequality in educational opportunities for underprivileged students. This Act resulted in the establishment of grants to help states initiate, expand and improve programs... "for the education of handicapped children". -
Children with Specific Learning Disabilities Act
Congress passed the Children with Specific Learning Disabilities Act. This was the first federal law mandating support services for students with learning disabilities. -
Pennsylvania Assn. for Retarded Children (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania
This lawsuit argued that all children, disabled or not, could benefit from free education and services. Ruled that laws that prohibited kids from 6 to 21 from receiving free education was unconstitutional and therefore that no child, regardless of their disability could be denied an education. -
Mills v. Board of Education of District of Columbia
Case was filed against the District of Columbia when the school district did not provide schooling to a child who violated their board regulations. The ruling expanded the requirement of FAPE to include students with "mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed, physically handicapped, hyperactive and other children with behavioral problems. -
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
This civil rights law bans discrimination on the basis of disability. Specifically, section 504 establishes that students with disabilities have the right to reasonable accommodations in public educational institution under the law. -
Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)
This act created federal privacy law that gave parents the right to have access to their child's educational records. It also protects the privacy of student records. -
Education for All Handicapped Children Act
Due to their disabilities, students were either excluded or misplaced in the education system. This limited their access to appropriate services and created costs to families. This law created the offer of FAPE (Free Appropriate Public Education), with assessment, protections for families and funding for schools. -
Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District vs Rowley
A supreme court decision held that the EHA of 1974 (and its 1975 amendment) did not require that special instruction and supportive services for students with disabilities be designed to help them achieve their full potential as learners. This decision determined that instruction and services simply "permit the child to benefit educationally from that instruction". The court decision in Rowley defined the term "free appropriate public education". -
The Handicapped Children’s Protection Act
This law extended protections that were not explicitly addressed in the EHA. It allowed parents of students with disabilities to recoup their legal costs against the school districts making it more feasible for parents to seek legal remedies in spite of the costs. -
Honig vs. Doe
A student was suspended from a California public school for violent behavior related to his disability. The court ruling established that students with disabilities who had misconduct related to their disability could not be suspended for more than 5 days, because this constituted a change in their placement. -
Reformulation of IDEA
The EHA was reauthorized in 1990 and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). A new requirement was for Individualized Education Program (IEP) -
Assistive Technology Act 1998
This act provides assistive technology to persons with disabilities so they can more fully participate in education, employment and daily activities. This leveled the playing field for individuals with disabilities and others in their community. It was instated in 1998 and reauthorized in 2004. The act provided a grant to each US state to fund Assistive Technology Act Programs. -
No Child Left Behind 2001
Signed into effect in 2001, NCLB affected every school in the United States with the goal of evening the playing field for disadvantaged students (children in poverty, with disabilities, who had English as a second language, and minority racial groups). The law was controversial because it penalized schools that did not show improvement. (Predecessor law - Elementary and Secondary Education Act (1965; Successor law - Every Student Succeeds Act (2015). -
Response to Intervention (RTI and MTSS)
The 2004 reauthorization of the IDEA in congress emphasized that students with disabilities should have "access to the general education curriculum in the regular classroom, to the maximum extent possible" and brought about the use of "scientific, research-based interventions known as Response to Interventions (RTI) as the start of services while students are in general education prior to start -
Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA)
Many states failed to meet the standards of NCLB which had increased standardized testing. ESSA shifted federal responsibility to the states for standardized testing. A focus of the law was for disabled students to have college and career readiness. The miltitiered systems of support (MTSS) is also established to help students in the general education without or before starting special education services.
