The Legal History of Special Education

1998 ◽  
Vol 19 (4) ◽  
pp. 219-228 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mitchell L. Yell ◽  
David Rogers ◽  
Elisabeth Lodge Rogers
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Legal History ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Unequal Treatment ◽  
History Of Special Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Education Act ◽  
Appropriate Education

ABSTRACT Children and youth with disabilities have historically received unequal treatment in the public education system. In the early 20th century, the enactment of compulsory attendance laws in the states began to change the educational opportunities for these students. Opportunities for admittance to public schools were greater, but many students nevertheless did not receive an effective or appropriate education. Beginning in the late 1960s and early 1970s, parents and advocates for students with disabilities began to use the courts in an attempt to force states to provide an equal educational opportunity for these students. These efforts were very successful and eventually led to the passage of federal legislation to ensure these rights. The purpose of this article is to examine the legal history of special education. We will examine these early efforts to ensure a free appropriate education for students with disabilities up to and including the enactment of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997.

Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District (2017): The U.S. Supreme Court and Special Education

2017 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 321-324 ◽  
Author(s):  
Angela M. T. Prince ◽  
Mitchell L. Yell ◽  
Antonis Katsiyannis
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
School District ◽  
Supreme Court ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Free Appropriate Public Education ◽  
Disabilities Education Act ◽  
Education Act ◽  
The U.S

On March 22, 2017, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District. This case addressed the question how much educational benefit are public schools required to provide to students with disabilities under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to confer a free appropriate public education (FAPE). The purpose of this legal update is to provide a brief overview of court developments regarding FAPE, summarize Endrew, and provide implications for practice.

scholarly journals The Lost Promise of Disability Rights

2021 ◽  
pp. 933
Author(s):  
Claire Raj
Keyword(s):  
Public Schools ◽  
Public Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Educational Opportunity ◽  
Section 504 ◽  
Equal Access ◽  
Disability Rights ◽  
Free Appropriate Public Education ◽  
The Difference ◽  
Education Act

Children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable students in public schools. They are the most likely to be bullied, harassed, restrained, or segregated. For these and other reasons, they also have the poorest academic outcomes. Overcoming these challenges requires full use of the laws enacted to protect these students’ affirmative right to equal access and an environment free from discrimination. Yet, courts routinely deny their access to two such laws—the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (section 504). Courts too often overlook the affirmative obligations contained in these two disability rights laws and instead assume that students with disabilities’ only legal recourse is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Regrettably the IDEA is not capable of remedying all the harms students endure. In fact, the IDEA, by its terms, extends to only a subset of students with disabilities. Even so, courts force all students to exhaust the IDEA’s administrative procedures before invoking remedies under the other two disability rights laws. By narrowly construing antidiscrimination principles and ignoring the affirmative obligations contained in disability rights laws, courts unduly restrict students’ protections under these laws. This Article solves that problem by explaining and clarifying the nuance that drives confusion in this area: the difference between the IDEA’s guarantee of a free appropriate public education and the ADA and section 504’s guarantee of equal access to public education. With that distinction clear, this Article disaggregates the types of claims that are most often erroneously obstructed by the IDEA’s exhaustion clause and then creates a framework that would allow courts to analyze and correctly apply the exhaustion clause. In doing so, it hopes to remove these laws from the IDEA’s shadow and renew their promise of equal access to educational opportunity.

scholarly journals Contemporary Issues of Special Education in Turkey

2021 ◽  
Vol 1 (2) ◽  
pp. 56-64
Author(s):  
Muhammed A. Karal
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Inclusive Education ◽  
Special Education Services ◽  
Research Papers ◽  
History Of Special Education ◽  
History Of ◽  
Education In Turkey ◽  
Special Education Laws ◽  
Published Research

The first international declaration of inclusive education through the Salamanca Statement (UNESCO, 1994) underlined the importance and necessity of inclusive practices and recommended that all students should benefit from the same educational approaches in the same environment. In addition to that, growth in field applications, published research papers, the number of trained professionals, and general awareness around students with disabilities triggered the improvement of special education services in Turkey during the last three decades. This article displays a brief history of special education, laws and regulations, the path of special education, and introduces contemporary issues in special education in Turkey. Without recognizing the existing situation and contemporary issues of the field of special education, it is not possible to take steps for planning and obtain better outcomes.

Unpacking the Logic of Compliance in Special Education: Contextual Influences on Discipline Racial Disparities in Suburban Schools

2021 ◽  
pp. 003804072110133
Author(s):  
Catherine Kramarczuk Voulgarides ◽  
Alexandra Aylward ◽  
Adai Tefera ◽  
Alfredo J. Artiles ◽  
Sarah L. Alvarado ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Problem Behaviors ◽  
Organizational Structures ◽  
School Level ◽  
Social Force ◽  
Idea 2004 ◽  
Race And Racialization ◽  
Education Act

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ([IDEA] 2004; IDEA Amendments 1997) is a civil rights–based law designed to protect the rights of students with disabilities in U.S. schools. However, decades after the initial passage of IDEA, racial inequity in special education classifications, placements, and suspensions are evident. In this article, we focus on understanding how racial discipline disparities in special education outcomes relate to IDEA remedies designed to address problem behaviors. We qualitatively examine how educators interpret and respond to citations for racial discipline disproportionality via IDEA at both the district and the school level in a suburban locale. We find that educators interpret the inequity in ways that neutralize the racialized implications of the citation, which in turn affects how they respond to the citation. These interpretations contribute to symbolic and race-evasive IDEA compliance responses. The resulting bureaucratic and organizational structures associated with IDEA implementation become a mechanism through which the visibility of race and racialization processes are erased and muted through acts of policy compliance. Thus, the logic of compliance surrounding IDEA administration serves as a reproductive social force that sustains practices that do not disrupt locally occurring racialized inequities.

Legal Issues in Early Childhood Special Education

2021 ◽  
pp. 104420732110231
Author(s):  
Susan Larson Etscheidt ◽  
Stephanie L. Schmitz ◽  
Andi M. Edmister
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Early Childhood ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
Due Process ◽  
Transition Planning ◽  
Qualitative Content Analysis ◽  
Early Childhood Special Education ◽  
Educational Planning ◽  
Professional Collaboration ◽  
Education Act

Family and professional collaboration is beneficial to students, families, and educators. The importance of such collaboration was recognized for families of students with disabilities, resulting in provisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) which ensure parental participation in educational planning. Despite the benefits of family and professional collaboration and IDEA mandate, many parents disagree with the educational planning decisions provided to their children and request due process hearings. Parents perceive a lack of opportunity to provide input and/or to disagree with schools’ perspectives. Parents of early childhood students report significant concerns about their child’s readiness for the transition to kindergarten and their limited role in transition planning as their children prepared to enter preschool programs. The purpose of this article was to examine the issues identified in parental complaints in early childhood special education (ECSE) through a qualitative content analysis of recent court cases. The results revealed six themes related to current issues in ECSE programs. We conclude with several recommendations for state policy makers to improve services in ECSE based on the DEC Recommended Practices.

Why Working Apart Doesn’t Work at All: Special Education and English Learner Teacher Collaborations

2018 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-39
Author(s):  
Sara E. N. Kangas
Keyword(s):  
Special Education ◽  
Public Schools ◽  
Students With Disabilities ◽  
English Learner ◽  
Individualized Education Programs ◽  
Education Programs ◽  
Individualized Education ◽  
Linguistic Development ◽  
Synergistic Relationships ◽  
Learning English

With many students learning English also identified with disabilities in public schools, collaborations across special education and English learner (EL) education are critical to promoting these students’ academic and linguistic development. Yet, many special education and EL teachers work independently of one another, focusing on their own specialized roles. In the process, students with disabilities who are learning English receive fragmented, inadequate special education and EL services. This article provides specific strategies—cocreating individualized education programs and instituting consultations—special education and EL teachers can implement to break out of their isolated roles and to build synergistic relationships that benefit the learning of students with disabilities who are learning English.

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