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American Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb
Rev. Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet became the principal of the American Asylum for the Education of the Deaf and Dumb, the first residential school in the U.S. This is the first school for disabled children in the western hemisphere. -
Council for Exceptional Children
The first advocacy group for children with disabilities. Today the CEC is the largest advocacy group for children with disabilities. Their main focus is ensuring that all children receive FAPE. -
Brown V. Board of Education
The landmark court case that stated separate is not equal. This case laid the groundwork for future special education court rulings and laws. This case helped ensure inclusion and equity in the classroom. -
Mills v. the Board of Education of the District of Columbia
This court case made it clear that the deprivation a group of disabled students suffered clearly violated their right to a public school education under the laws of the District of Columbia. This law laid the foundation for later laws including IDEA and Section 504. -
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act Date
Section 504 of the 1973 Rehabilitation Act was the first disability civil rights law to be enacted in the United States. It prohibits discrimination against people with disabilities in programs that receive federal financial assistance, and set the stage for enactment of the Americans with Disabilities Act. Section 504 works together with the ADA and IDEA to protect children and adults with disabilities from exclusion, and unequal treatment in schools, jobs and the community. -
Education for All Handicapped Children Act
This act made sure that all children with disabilities could be educated in a public school. -
Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley
Supreme Court held that the Education of the Handicapped Act did not require that the special instruction and supportive services provided under the law by state governments to disabled students be designed to help them achieve their full potential as learners. Instead, it was sufficient that the instruction and services be such as “to permit the child to benefit educationally from that instruction.” The ruling marked the first time that the court had interpreted any portion of the EHA" -
Americans with Disabilities Act
The ADA is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in all areas of public life, including jobs, schools, transportation, and all public and private places that are open to the general public. -
IDEA
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act replaced the EHA in order to place more focus on the individual, as opposed to a condition that individual may have.[9] The IDEA also had many improvements on the EHA, such as promoting research and technology development, details on transition programs for students post-high school and programs that educate children in their neighborhood schools, as opposed to separate schools -
No Child Left Behind
With NCLB “special education should continue
to focus on producing results” (Esteves & Rao, 2008). SPED teachers have higher standards to be held to, in order to “focus less on procedural compliance and more on results” (Esteves & Rao, 2008). -
IDEA Reauthorized
The re-authorization of IDEA made several important changes including updates to IEPs, due process, and student discipline policies.
