Decades of tireless advocacy led to the recognition that children with disabilities have a civil right to a “Free Appropriate Public Education.” In 1975, President Gerald Ford signed into federal law, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA). In 1990 EHA was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The IDEA was reauthorized by Congress and signed by President Bill Clinton in 1997 and again by President George Bush in 2004 (IDEA 2004).
So what does the IDEA 2004 require? The IDEA is a federal law that appropriates partial funding (Congress has never met its promise to fund 40% of our states’ costs and currently funds approximately 17-18% per state.) and governs how states (referred to as an ‘SEA”) and school districts (referred as either a “public agency” or “LEA”) provide, early intervention (birth through the student’s 21st birthday), special education and related services, to children with disabilities. The guiding principle of the IDEA 2004 is always a “Free Appropriate Public Education” at “no cost to the parent” (or guardian), that identifies and provides for the “unique individual educational needs of the child” and in the “least restrictive environment.” Children with disabilities, to the “maximum extent appropriate,” should be educated with their nondisabled peers.
So you suspect your child has a disability and needs special education, what’s next…or first? When a parent or teacher suspect a child has a disability, the first step a parent must take is to request in writing a “referral for evaluation.” School districts cannot initiate testing without prior notice and approval from a parent (legal guardian).
There are 13 categories of disabilities and their definitions in the IDEA 2004:
1. Autism (To be discussed in greater detail in future articles, but important to know that the IDEA 2004 definition of Autism is far more restrictive than the DSM-IV and also does not include Asperger’s Syndrome or PDD-NOS)
2. Deaf-Blindness
