The Legislative History of Special Education
-- P. L. 89-10, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). Provided a comprehensive plan for readdressing the inequality of educational opportunity for economically underprivileged children. It became the statutory basis upon which early special education legislation was drafted.
-- P. L. 89-313, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1965. Authorized grants to state institutions and state operated schools devoted to the education of children with disabilities. It was the first Federal grant program specifically targeted for children and youth with disabilities.
--P. L. 89-750, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1966. Established the first Federal grant program for the education of children and youth with disabilities at the local school level, rather than at state-operated schools or institutions. It also established the Bureau of Education of the Handicapped (BEH) and the National Advisory Council (now called the National Council on Disability).
-- P. L. 90-247, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1968. Final Federal special education legislation of the 1960s, established a set of programs that supplemented and supported the expansion and improvement of special education services. These programs later became known as discretionary.
-- P. L. 91-230, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1970, which included Title VI, the Education of the Handicapped Act. Established a core grant program for local education agencies, now known as part B, and it authorized a number of discretionary programs.
-- P. L. 93-380, The Education Amendments of 1974. Established two laws. One was the Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1974, which was the first to mention an appropriate education for all children with disabilities. It also reauthorized the discretionary programs. The second law, the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, gave parents and students over the age of 18 the right to examine records kept in the student's personal file.
-- P. L. 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, and mandated IEPs and LRE. As such, it is the core of Federal funding for special education. This law was passed in 1975 and went into effect in October of 1977 when the regulations were finalized.
-- P. L. 98-199, The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1983. Reauthorized the discretionary programs, established services to facilitate school to work transition through research and demonstration projects; established parent training and information centers; and provided funding for demonstration projects and research in early intervention and early childhood special education.
-- P. L. 99-457, The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986. Mandated services for preschoolers and established the Part H program to assist states in the development of a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and statewide system of early intervention services for infants.
-- P. L. 101-476, The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1990. Renamed the law the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It reauthorized and expanded the discretionary programs, mandated transition services, defined assistive technology devices and services, and added autism and traumatic brain injury to the list of categories of children and youth eligible for special education and related services.
-- P. L. 102-119, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1992. Primarily addressed the Part H (Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities) Program.
-- P. L. 105-17, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997. The reauthorization of IDEA was viewed as an opportunity to review, strengthen, and improve IDEA to better educate children with disabilities and enable them to achieve a quality education. Congress sought to achieve this by:
-- Strengthening the role of parents;
-- Ensuring access to the general curriculum and reforms;
-- Focusing on teaching and learning while reducing unnecessary paper work requirements;
-- Assisting educational agencies in addressing the costs of improving special education and related services to children with disabilities;
-- Giving increased attention to racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity to prevent inappropriate identification and mislabeling;
-- Ensuring schools are safe and conducive to learning; and
-- Encouraging parents and educators to work out their differences by using non adversarial means.
--H.R.1, No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, is an updated version of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA).