The document summarizes key legislation and court cases impacting special education services. It describes the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) of 1975 which established free appropriate public education, least restrictive environment, IEPs, and due process. It also outlines subsequent laws like the IDEA, No Child Left Behind Act, and the Every Student Succeeds Act, which reauthorized and amended special education policy. The document also reviews assessment and identification processes, components of IEPs and service delivery models like inclusion, mainstreaming, and least restrictive environment.

2. Chapter Two
Policies, Practices, and Programs

3. Litigation and Legislation
Affecting Special Education

4. Key Special Education Court
Cases
– Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, Kansas (1954)
– PARC v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania (1972)
– Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School
District v. Rowley (1982)
– Daniel R.R. v. State Board of Education (1989)
– Oberti vs. Board of Education of the Borough of Clementon
School District (1992)
– Cedar Rapids Community School District v. Garret F. (1999)
– Schaffer vs. Weast (2005)
– Winkleman vs. Parma City School District (2007)
– Forest Grove School District vs. T. A. (2009)
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5. Key Special Education Legislation
– PL 94-142 (1975)
• Education for all Handicapped Children Act
– PL 99-457 (1986 Amendments to PL 94-142)
• Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments
– PL 101-476 (1990 Amendments to PL 94-142)
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
– PL 105-17 (1997 Amendments to IDEA)
• IDEA Act Amendments
– PL 107-110 (2001)
• No Child Left Behind Act
– PL 108-446 (2004)
• Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act
– PL-114-95 (2015)
• Every Student Succeeds Act
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6. PL 94-142
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of
1975
– Called the “Bill of Rights” for children with “legislative
heart of special education,” and the “Parent’s Law.”
– Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)
– Least Restrictive Environment (LRE) disabilities, the
– Individualized Education Program (IEP)
– Procedural Due Process
– Nondiscriminatory Assessment
– Parental Participation
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7. PL 99-457
Education of the Handicapped Act
Amendments of 1986
• Affected education and services for young
children with special needs and their families
– Preschoolers (age 3-5)
– Children from birth through age 2
– Individualized Family Service Plan (IFSP)
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8. PL 101-476
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
(IDEA)
• 1990 amendments renamed PL 94-142 as the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
• Individual Transition Plan (ITP) required by age 16
• Expanded related services
• Added autism and traumatic brain injury as distinct
disability categories
• States held accountable to implement law
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9. PL 105-17
IDEA Act Amendments of 1997
• Disciplinary considerations
• IEP changes to support inclusion and transition
• Related services expanded to include orientation
and mobility services
• Mediation procedures developed
• Expanded category of developmental delay
• Evaluation and reevaluation requirements changed
• Federal funding changes
• Performance goals/accountability
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10. PL 107-110
No Child Left Behind Act of 2001
• Reauthorization of the Elementary and Secondary Education
Act
• Annual testing for all students in certain grades to
demonstrate adequate yearly progress in mathematics,
reading, and science
• Public access to schools’ performance on tests
• Provides for parental choice in schools that do not meet
annual progress goals
• Schools not making sufficient annual progress offer additional
services to students
• Highly Qualified status for teachers
• Common Core State Standards Initiative
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11. PL 108-446
Individuals with Disabilities Education
Improvement Act of 2004
• Special education services aligned with national school
improvement efforts
• IEP changes
• Identification of students with learning disabilities through
Response to Intervention (RTI)
• Highly qualified special education teachers
• Discipline
• Due process
• Evaluation of students
• Assessment participation
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12. PL-114-95
Every Student Succeeds Act of 2015
• Reauthorization of the Elementary and
Secondary education Act
• AYP provisions repealed and replaced by a
statewide accountability system
• States can adopt Common Core State
Standards, but not a requirement
• “Highly qualified” teacher status is eliminated
• State intervention for low performing schools
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13. Civil Rights Legislation

14. Section 504 of the Rehabilitation
Act of 1973
• This act employs a broader definition of eligibility
than IDEA and states that no individual can be
excluded, solely because of their disability, from
participating in any program or activity receiving
federal funding, including schools.
• Schools may be required to develop plans to
meet the needs of students who require
accommodations.
• Section 504 covers the entire lifespan not just
the school years.
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15. Gargiulo, Special Education in Contemporary
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16. PL 101-336
Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) of 1990
• Designed to eliminate discrimination against people with
disabilities in the pubic and private sectors.
• Expanded definitions of eligibility may include people
with AIDS, substance abuse issues, or any impairment
that limits a major life activity.
• Employers, mass transit systems, and companies who
provide products and services must make “reasonable
accommodations” for people with disabilities.
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17. PL 110-325
The Americans with Disabilities Act
Amendments of 2008
• Reauthorization of the ADA; commonly called ADAA
• Became effective January 2009
• Broader interpretation of disability includes additional life
activities (reading, concentrating, thinking) or body
functions (such as immune system or neurological
functioning)
• Interpretation of “substantial limitation” made without
considering the effects of mitigating measures like
medication or medical equipment
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18. Identification and Assessment
of Individual Differences

19. Interindividual Differences
• Differences between students
– Examples: height, sports skill, reading ability
– Students are identified, labeled, and placed in
instructional setting based on interindividual
differences
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20. Intraindividual Differences
• Differences within a student
– Examples: individual patterns of strengths and
needs
– Information helps craft a customized
instructional plan tailored to the learner
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21. Referral and Assessment for
Special Education

22. Prereferral and Referral
• Prereferral
• Instructional or behavioral strategies introduced by the
general educator to assist students who are struggling
• Detailed documentation of these intervention efforts provides
a strong justification for the initiation of a formal referral.
• Referral
• Child is formally referred for assessment
• Referral occurs due to unsuccessful results from prereferral
interventions or from child-find.
• IDEA does not require parental consent for referrals;
however, it is wise to notify parents/guardians that a referral
is being initiated
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23. Assessment
– The process of gathering information and
identifying a student’s strengths and needs
through a variety of instruments and products;
data used in making decisions
– Parental permission is obtained before
moving forward with an evaluation
– Evaluation is conducted by a multidisciplinary
team to determine if a disability is present
• Norm-referenced and criterion-referenced
assessments
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24. SOURCE: Adapted from S. Thompson, “Choosing and Using Accommodations on Assessments,” CEC Today, 10(6), 2004, pp. 12, 18.
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25. Designing Individualized
Instructional Programs

26. Individualized Education Program
(IEP)
• A written document that stipulates who will be
involved in providing a special education, what
services will be offered, where they will be
delivered, and for how long. In addition, an IEP
gauges how successfully goals have been met
• Schools are not reliable if goals are not achieved
• Schools are liable if they do not provide the
services stated in the IEP
• Reviewed at least once annually
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27. IEP Team
• Required
– A parent/guardian
– The child’s teachers including a general education
teacher and a special educator
– A representative from the school district
– An individual able to interpret the instructional
implications of the assessments conducted
• When appropriate
– The student
– Other professionals (e.g., speech pathologist)
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28. Individualized Family Service Plan
(IFSP)
• Supports infants and toddlers with disabilities
and their families
• Developed based on assessments by
professionals and family input
• Goals developed to reflect the family’s priorities
and needs
• Reviewed every 6 months
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29. Service Delivery Options: Where
a Special Education is Provided

30. SOURCE: U.S. Department of Education. (2013). Historical state-level IDEA data files. Retrieved November 13, 2013
from http://tadnet.public.tadnet.org/pages/712
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31. Least Restrictive Environment
• Principle that each pupil should be educated, to
the maximum extent appropriate, with
classmates who are typical
• The Least Restrictive (LRE) option is the general
education classroom because it provides the
most access to children without disabilities.
• Students may need a more restrictive setting to
meet their unique needs.
• LRE is not a place, but a concept
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32. Additional Key Terms
• Mainstreaming
– An early term for the practice of integrating students with special
needs into a general education classroom for all or part of the
school day
• Regular education initiative (REI)
– An approach that advocates that general educators assume
greater responsibility for the education of students with
disabilities
• Full inclusion
– An interpretation of the principle of least restrictive environment
advocating all students with disabilities be educated in the
general education classroom
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33. Gargiulo, Special Education in Contemporary Society, 6e. SAGE Publishing, 2018.
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SOURCE: Adapted from S. Graves, R. Gargiulo, and L. Sluder, Young Children: An Introduction to Early Childhood Education (St.
Paul, MN: West, 1996), p. 398.