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IDEA in the Past
IDEA, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,
mandates that eligible children with diabilities have
available to them special education and related services
designed to address their unique educational needs.
The IDEA, and most especially the providsion of special
education, has its roots in the past.
The laws from which the present-day IDEA has sprung:
-PL. 89-10, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965
(ESEA), the statutory basis upon which early special education
legislation was drafted; three subsequent amendments in 1965,
1966, and 1968
-P1.91-230, ESEA Amendments of 1970, which included Part B,
the Education of Handicapped Act
-PL. 93-280, The Education Amendments of 1974, included Title VI,
which was the Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments
of 1974; an appropriate education for all children with disabilities
was mentioned for the first time
-PL. 94-142, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act
of 1975, mandated a free appropriate public education for all
children with disabilities, ensured due process rights,
mandated IEPs and LRE, and became the core of federal funding
for special education
-Amendments to the EHA, in -1983, 1986 (which established
the Part H program), 1990 (which renamed the law IDEA), and 1992
-PL. 105-17, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Amendments of 1997, the current law.
Selected Informal Goals of IDEA 97
-Strenghtening the role of parents
-Ensuring access to the general curriculum and reforms
-Focusing on teaching and learning while reducing papework
-Assisting educational agencies in addressing costs of improving
special education and related services
-Giving increased attention to ratial, ethnic, and linquistic
diversity to prevent inapproprivate identification and mislabeling
-Ensuring schools are safe and conducive to learning
-Encouraging parents and educators to work out their differences
by using nonadversaral means
RESOURCE
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Six Principles of IDEA
The individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Amendments of 1997 are the fifth set of amendments to
the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, better
known as EHA or Public Law 94-142.
Before EHA became law, children with disabilities were
all too often not served in the public schools. When
they were allowed to attend, the education they received
was often not appropriate to their unique needs or they were
removed from the regular education classroom and educated
separately, frequently in entirely separate schools.
Responding to this inequity, Congress passed the EHA, which
through a series of amendments has become what, today, we call
the IDEA. IDA has running through it six principles that provide
the framework around which special education services
are designed and provided to students with disabilities.
These principles are:
-free appropriate public education (FAPE),
-appropriate evaluation,
-individualized education program,
-least restrictive environment,
-parent and student participation in decision making, and
-procedural sefeguards.
Alone and together, these six principles work to guarantee that
children with disabilities can go to school every day, learn what
other children learn, except perhaps in different ways, and have their
individual educational needs determined and addressed.
RESOURCE
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Background for IEP
1. Child recognized as needing special education and/or
services
2. Evaluation and testing of child
3. Eligibility determined
a. If eligible, IEP is created
i. IEP meeting scheduled
ii. IEP written
iii. Services provided
iv. Progress measured and reported to parrents
v. IEP reviewed
vi. Child reevaluated
b. Parents may challenge eligibility decision
(They may take child to Independent Educational
Evaluation (IEE) )
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