Reflection No1 EdAd 508

Highlight the general components of P.L. 94-142, and how IDEA benefits students who receive special education services

        We have gone a long way regarding the special education services in this country, since the Congress approved the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142), in 1975, to support states and localities in protecting the rights of, meeting the individual needs of, infants, toddlers, children, and youth with disabilities and their families. This law is well known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), as amended in 1997.

25 years has gone by, and tremendous progress has been made toward meeting major goals for developing and implementing effective programs and services for early intervention, special education, and related services. However, before IDEA, many children were denied access to education and opportunities to learn. Back in the days, in 1970, U.S. schools educated only one in five children with disabilities, and many states had laws excluding certain students, including children who were deaf, blind, emotionally disturbed, or mentally retarded. Nowadays, there are early intervention programs and services that are provided to a lot of eligible infants and toddlers and their families, IDEA had benefited children and youth receive special education and related services to meet their individual needs.

Other accomplishments that came with IDEA include educating more children in their neighborhood schools, rather than in separate schools and institutions, and contributing to improvements in the rate of high school graduation, post-secondary school enrollment, and post-school employment for youth with disabilities who have benefited from IDEA.  

The Public Law 94-142, then amended into IDEA, (1975- 1978) had guaranteed a free, appropriate public education to each child with a disability in every state and locality across the country. Being the main purposes of the law to improve access to education for all children with disabilities.

Some of the changes that came with this law included efforts to improve how children with disabilities were identified and educated, to evaluate the success of these efforts, and to provide due process protections for children and families.

The main four purposes of this law were to assure that all children with disabilities have available a free appropriate public education which emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs. Also, to assure that the rights of children with disabilities and their parents were protected and to assist States and localities to provide for the education of all children with disabilities, and last but not least, to  assess and assure the effectiveness of efforts to educate all children with disabilities. IDEA had also invited parents to become partners in the services their children receive, they are considered important partners on meeting the needs of children with disabilities and their educational process because it is their children who benefit the most from this law.