3.4: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
- Page ID
- 228261
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Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
During most of the 20th century, children with disabilities frequently faced discrimination in public education either through the lack of appropriate accommodations or complete exclusion from local schools. At the start of the 1970s, only about 20% of children with disabilities attended a public school. Often, instead of attending local schools, children who were blind, deaf, had physical disabilities like cerebral palsy, or had intellectual disabilities like Down syndrome were sent to institutions with little to no educational instruction. Parents and disability activists at the time called for an end to forcing children with disabilities into separate learning facilities.
The legislative history of educational reforms began with the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965, which was the first time the federal government allocated direct aid to states for public education.
Education reforms continued and in 1975, the United States Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA). In 1990 it was renamed and is as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The most recent amendment is Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA 2004), a federal law that ensures children with disabilities have access to a free and appropriate public education (FAPE):
The stated purpose of the IDEA is:
- to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living
- to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents of such children are protected
- to assist States, localities, educational service agencies, and Federal agencies to provide for the education of all children with disabilities
- to assist States in the implementation of a statewide, comprehensive, coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency system of early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families
- to ensure that educators and parents have the necessary tools to improve educational results for children with disabilities by supporting system improvement activities; coordinated research and personnel preparation; coordinated technical assistance, dissemination, and support; and technology development and media services;
- to assess, and ensure the effectiveness of, efforts to educate children with disabilities
The key components of this law are also outlined in the short video below.
Child Find: Identify|Locate|Evaluate |Provide
Legally, public schools have a duty to educate every child, from early childhood through high school, within the district and are obligated to meet each child where they are at by providing special education and related services regardless of the severity of their disability.
Child Find is a provision within Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that ensures local public school districts are identifying students in need of special education services in order to provide them with a free appropriate public education (FAPE). In addition, Part C of IDEA provides for an Early Intervention Program for all young children with disabilities and their families.
School districts are required to locate, identify and evaluate children with disabilities within their attendance area. To assist in this child find process, districts have developed Informed Referral Networks. An Informed Referral Network is comprised of community partners working together to serve young children and their families. Relationships with community partners have proven to be the most effective practice in identifying children with disabilities. These partnerships provide an opportunity to learn more about screening young children and providing information about community resources. This community network refers children who may have a disability and a need for special education. Local educational agencies (LEAs) must comply with certain state and federal special education notice requirements by placing the following notices in newspapers or other media.
Image Source: Michigan Alliance for Families
Fig. 3.4 Child Find Chart that states Identify. Locate. Evaluate. Provide.
Sources
- About IDEA. IDEA Individuals With Disabilities Education Act. U.S. Department of Educartion
- Early Childhood: Child Find. Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction. Website.
- Ross, Nathaniel. "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (1975)." Embryo Project Encyclopedia. Arizona State University. Copyright Arizona Board of Regents Licensed as Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-NC-SA 3.0)