A Historic Look at Special Education and Assistive Technology Law by

Rehabilitation Act of 1973

erosa001 — 2025-02-02 19:31:00 UTC

The Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was a comprehensive bill and perhaps the most groundbreaking piece of this bill is Section 504. Section 504 required that reasonable access be provided for people with disabilities. This law impacted public schools, as well as areas outside of public schools including the entire workforce. Section 504 is widely viewed as one of the first pieces of civil rights legislation for people with disabilities, as well as the foundation setter for notable laws such as IDEA and the ADA.

Americans With Disabilities Act 1990

erosa001 — 2025-02-03 14:42:21 UTC

The Americans with Disabilities Act, otherwise known as the ADA was signed into law by President George H.W. Bush in 1990. The law set a federal precedent disallowing discrimination in employment and transportation based on disability. This act offered people with handicaps access to public accommodations and telecommunications. The ADA would be reauthorized twice, the first time being the Americans with Disabilities Amendment Act of 2008, otherwise known as the ADAA. The ADAA seeked to make some minor changes in the language and definition, though the core intent of the bill remained the same. The second would be the 2010 Standards. This was a list of new standards released by the DOJ concerning Titles II and III of the ADA, whoch made public government building more accessible to Americans with disabilities.

Carl D Perkins Act 1984

erosa001 — 2025-02-03 17:51:08 UTC

Education For All Handicapped Children Act 1975/IDEA

erosa001 — 2025-02-03 18:04:49 UTC

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was signed into law by President Geral Ford on November 29, 1975. This was a landmark piece of legislation that changed education for all school-aged children with disabilities. The purpose of this act was to ensure all children had access to a Free Appropriate Public Education, commonly shortened to FAPE. This law in effect ensured all children with disabilities had access to special education and other services to meet their unique needs, including setting the guideline for IEPs. This act would be reauthorized in 1986 to add services for infants and pre-school children. In 1990, under President Geiorge H.W. Bush, the EHA would be reauthorized under the name Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, also known as IDEA. The 1990 reauthorization added the Individual Transition Plan, which was to be part of the IEP, this also required the consideration for AT in a transition plan and also required that the AT be provided with the IEP deemed it to be necessary. The 1990 IDEA amendments also added autism and traumatic brain injury as disability categories. IDEA would be authorized again in 1997 and stressed the importance of PBIS to address issues concerning student behavior. The 1997 amendments also made it clear that students with disabilities were meant to be educated with their peers. IDEA would be reauthorized again in 2004 and add to the definition of AT. This also introduced the Universal Design for Learning or UDL.

Technology-Related Assistance For Individuals with Disabilities Act/Telecommunications Act/Assistive Technology Act 1988

erosa001 — 2025-02-04 04:43:07 UTC

The Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act, better known as the Tech Act was signed into law by President Ronald Reagan with the purpose of providing funding to states to develop consumer information and training programs designed to meet the needs related to assistive technology for people with disabilities, this act also defined assistive technology services and assistive technology devices. This act would be reauthorized in 1996 under President Bill Clinton under the name Telecommunications Act, this act seeked to connect all classrooms to the information superhighway by 2000. The Tech Act would be changed to the Assistive Technology Act by President Bill Clinton in 1998 with the purposes of supporting programs and grants to states in order to address the technology needs of individuals with disabilities. The AT Act would be reauthorized in 2004 under President George W. Bush and redirected funding to individuals by seeking to directly deliver AT to individuals with disabilities as opposed to setting up delivery structures within the states.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act/No Child Left Behind Act/Every Student Succeeds Act 1965

erosa001 — 2025-02-04 05:06:14 UTC

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1965. This law does not directly tie into AT but does provide 4 important principles that relate to students with disabilities which include: accountability for results, more options for parents, greater local control of and flexibility in the use of federal funds, and an emphasis on using the best practices based on scientific research. This law would be reauthorized in 2001 under President George W. Bush as the No Child Left Behind Act. The purpose of NCLB was to increase the federal governments power to hold schools accountable for student results, this Act required states to set standards and for schools to ensure that students reached these standards, and more importantly to submit results for certain sub-groups of students such as English learners and students in special education. The law would be reauthorized again in 2015 under President Barack Obama. The purpose of this act was to change the approach from No Child Left Behind by peeling back federal power. Schools would still be held accountable, but under ESSA this would be a far more state-led accountability.

Architectural Barriers Act 1968

erosa001 — 2025-02-04 21:29:38 UTC

Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia 1972

erosa001 — 2025-02-05 00:55:44 UTC

Mills v. The Board of Education for the District of Columbia was a case taken to the Supreme Court when seven students were excluded from public schooling in Washington D.C. due to learning and behavior difficulties. In this case, the Court ruled that financial problems for the schools could not be allowed to have a greater impact on students with disabilities than students without, and ordered that the children be reinstated and served appropriately by the schools.

Brown v. Board of Education 1954

erosa001 — 2025-02-05 02:03:58 UTC

References

erosa001 — 2025-02-05 02:44:03 UTC