The Disabilities Education Act

There is a strong emphasis on providing equal opportunities for education. This includes both to minorities and historically disadvantaged groups, as well as to those with disabilities. The Equal Education Opportunities Act of 1974 provides that no state can deny an equal opportunity to education to any individual on the basis of race, color, sex, or national origin. Similarly, for children with disabilities, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act establishes a process for evaluating student needs and providing for an education program tailored to that individual. Similarly, most states have their own supplemental laws expanding upon the educational rights of children with special needs.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997 (IDEA), is a federal special education law and was signed into law in June 1997. The IDEA pledges that each child with a disability as well as students who need special education services has the right to a free proper public education, with the least restrictive environment. Below are the six components that are included in the IDEA. They include;

Federal laws such as The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has greatly impacted the education and life of people with special needs in the United States. Rosalind Charlesworth (2013) reports that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is the revised version of the Education of All Handicapped children act of 1975. The U.S Department of Education (2007) states that the Education of All Handicapped children act of 1975 was established by the U.S congress to “support states and localities in protecting the rights of, meeting the individual needs of, and improving the results of infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities and their families”. However, Charlesworth (2013) goes on to say that children from the ages

…“Children with disabilities should be educated in the most open and normal environment possible (the least restrictive environment); when needed, evaluations, diagnose, and treatments should be done without stigmatization and discrimination.”… (Pg. 176)

The American with Disabilities Act was signed into law on July 26, 1990, by President George H.W. Bush. (Mayerson, 1992). According to Hallahan, Kauffman, & Pullen (2015, P, 14) “the ADA provides protection of the civil rights in the specific areas of employment, transportation, public, accommodation, State and local government, and telecommunication. According to Mayerson (1992, P1) “the ADA did not began at the signing ceremony at the White House, but it began in the communities, when parents with children with disabilities began to fight against the exclusion and segregation of the children". The foundation of the ADA, is the disability rights movement. The disability movement fought for the rights of the people with disability. According to Mayerson (1992, P, 1) "The disability rights movement, has made the injustices faced by the people with disabilities visible to the American public and politicians." Without the contribution of the disabilities rights movement there would not have been an ADA. Like the civil rights movement before the people with disabilities sat in federal buildings, marched through the streets to protest the injustice. Also, they sought justice in the courts (Mayerson, 1992). According to Mayerson (1992, P 2) " From a legal perspective, a profound and historic shift in the disability public policy occurred in the 1973 with the passage of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act". Section 504 is the U.S federal law that protect the people with

The third part of the definition is very subtle. It prohibits discrimination against individuals on the basis of what someone else considers a handicap. The example that is given is of someone with a severe facial disfigurement being denied employment because the employer fears a negative reaction on the part of customers and fellow employees. In other words, the employer is discriminating

It is a matter of common knowledge that more than five percent of the world's population, that is three hundred and sixty million people ( three hundred and twenty eight million adults and thirty two million children) suffer from disabling hearing loss. Hearing loss can be caused by hereditary and non-hereditary genetic factors or certain complications during pregnancy and childbirth. First of all, hearing loss affects a person's ability to communicate with others. Among the children suffering from deafness, there is a delay in the development of spoken

According to the U.S. Department of Education “ this law with the subsequent amendments as currently reflected in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; PL 108-446) supports states and localities in protecting the rights of, meeting the individual needs of, and improving results for infants, toddlers, children, and youths with disabilities and their families.” As the 35th year anniversary of P.L. 94-142 approaches the landscape of civil rights and equal education for all children has improved thanks to the Public Law 94-142.

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act, also know as Public Law 94-142, was signed into law by President Gerald Ford on November 29, 1975. IT took effect in 1997, and was deigned “to assure that all handicapped children have available to them a free appropriate public education which emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs” (BOOK). This is considered the “Bill of Rights” for children who have disabilities and for their families. There are key provisions incorporated into this law, and they “have forever changed the landscape of education across the United States” ("Special Education Public Policy - Project IDEAL."). These six provisions include zero reject, nondiscriminatory evaluation, individualized education program, least restrictive environment, due process, an d parental participation.

School is one of the fundamental milestones every child and adolescent goes through when developing into an adult. Often these developmental periods are described as a time of emotional turmoil (Santrock, 2014). However, when the added stress of a behavioral or emotional disorders (EBD) is coupled with basic development, there are several issues that can arise. Within academic settings, the common debate is what a proper placement is for students diagnosed with emotional behavioral disorders.

Before the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was enacted, there were little resources for people with disabilities, though IDEA has changed all of that. The U. S. Department of Education (2015) stated “This law had a dramatic, positive impact on millions of children with disabilities in every state and each local community across the country” (Public Law 94-142, para. 1). The IDEA has provided millions of recipients the education and care necessary for them to be productive citizens. There are six guiding principles of the IDEA; Zero Reject, Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE), Protection in Evaluation Provisions (PEP), Least Restrictive Environment, Procedural Safeguards, and Parent Participation.

The Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EHA) had an overall goal of desegregating disabled children in schools, as well as work on integrating them in classrooms with their non-disabled peers. Until the Civil Rights Movement, not much attention was brought to the fact that children with disabilities had very little rights and were kept isolated and not given a proper education, if any at all. Because of the attention brought to the poor and unjust treatment of children with disabilities and the significant court cases dealing with the fourteenth amendment such as Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia, The EHA was passed in 1975. There were high hopes for this act, including keeping disabled students integrated

IDEA is the main law addressing the education of children and adolescents with disabilities. It ensures all individuals with disabilities between the ages of 3−21 the right to a free, appropriate public education (FAPE), regardless of the nature or severity of the disability. Schools must therefore provide services to meet the particular educational needs arising from a disabling condition that cannot be met in the general educational program.

Children with disabilities are able to receive special education and related services from age 3 through their 21st birthday. These services are mandated under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) (U.S. Department of Education, 2007). School divisions are required by law to provide transition services to all children with disabilities who receive special education services in order to make the transition successful. Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) receive special education services, thus they are provided with transition services in order to function successfully in adulthood (Wagner, 2006).

A first grader sits in class and finds a toy car in his pocket, the teacher calls his name with no response, the little boy is now in trouble for not paying attention. In the classroom down the hall a little girl in kindergarten can’t stay in her seat long enough to finish her drawing in art class. Each of these students will most likely go through all thirteen years of public school struggling to concentrate and intellectually compete with their peers. If something as simple as ADD or ADHD can go undetected for so long imagine the variety of disorders that impair a child 's chance to grow and learn. Not every child can learn from the same curriculum, some children need to take a different approach because of a simple learning disability or something severe as an intellectual disability. Its not fair for these students to sit through general education classes, special needs students have the same right to a free education. Which is why ¨The Education For All Handicapped Children Act” was amended by congress in 1997. Now every child has a chance to reach their goals, and it takes a special kind of teacher to help them do so. Modern special education teachers use many tools to help students with special needs reach their goals through Individualized Education Program(IEP), therapy, specially designed educational toys, and the past knowledge of what has helped their previous peers excel.