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Brown vs Board of Education
This landmark Supreme Court Case determined that it was unconstitutional to separate children in schools on the basis of their race. This case was instrumental in laying the foundations for future court cases regarding special education and separating and excluding children from the classroom based on any perceived differences. Brown vs Board of Education set the tone moving forward on how to advocate for students and inclusion in schools. -
Training Professional Personnel Act
This act supported allocating money towards the training of special education professionals. This applies to those individuals who work with toddlers, adolescents, and their families. This act was built around children with "mental retardation" which is obviously language we have moved away from, but at the time this was key legislation to move special education in the right direction of garnering support. -
Elementary and Secondary Education Act
This law passed by Lyndon B. Johnson was intended to establish education as a national concern and establish a way for all students to succeed. It established new grants that were intended to support low-income students and supplement funding for texts, centers for students with disabilities, and scholarships when necessary and applicable. It also allotted money to educational institutions to encourage and help them improve the quality of the education they provided. -
Individualized Education Plan Created
An individualized education plan is a document created by a team of professionals and a child's guardians to support a child with special needs. This document is to be reassessed and updated yearly to reflect the child's growth and needs. An IEP is intended to support a student in their least restrictive environment. It helps to create and meet goals, outline supportive tools and measures to be taken, and outline a student's performance with their strengths and weaknesses. -
Education for all Handicapped Children Act
This act required that any public school accepting federal funding must provide an equal opportunity to education for children with physical and mental disabilities as well as provide a meal for them like any non disabled child that goes there. This act enabled processes to ensure that parents of children with disabilities were involved in their child's educational plan. It established the concept of the least-restrictive environment to introduce and expose every student to their peers. -
Natl Joint Committee on Learning Disabilities
Founded out of the Education for all Handicapped Children Act, the NJCLD is committed to ensuring all children with learning disabilities are supported. They perform research and share and develop their findings to further teachers and educational institutions abilities to help support their students with learning disabilities. As advocates for children with learning disabilities they fight for legislation and development of education regarding students with learning disabilities. -
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
This act replace the Education for all Handicapped Children Act from 1975. This act was passed with the intention to expand the protections and ensurements that allow students with disabilities the same access to education as their peers without disabilities. It introduced the IEP, Least Restrictive Environment, Free and Appropriate Public Education, Parent and Teacher Participation, Appropriate Evaluation, and Procedural Safeguards. IDEA -
No Child Left Behind
This act expanded upon and reestablished the Elementary and Secondary Education Act and set high standards for educational outcomes. It increased federal involvement in education through requirement and emphasis on standards, testing, and qualifications for teachers. However, it also left individual states to set their standards. -
IDEA Improvement Act
This act provided amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It included definitions of prior inclusions in the act as well as well as clarifying the classifications of different support frameworks for students with disabilities. -
Every Student Succeeds Act
This act reauthorized the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 and replaced the No Child Left Behind Act of 2002. It helps to provide equal and fair access to education for all children. It shifts more responsibility onto the states and school districts to establish the standards they hold their students and educators to. Youtube