SPECIAL EDUCATION

IDEA is the Individual with Disabilities Education Act, a federal law that assures children with disabilities a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment. (ODE, 1995)

In the past students with disabilities were removed from mainstream classrooms rather than being included in publicly supported education programs. Some states had laws that permitted public school to deny admission to these children. Gradually, in the seventies, public school began educating children with disabilities, but usually in a separate class or facility.

In 1972 the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) challenged a law in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania denying a public school education to children with mental retardation and other disabilities. The court ruled that children with mental retardation were entitled to a free, appropriate public education (FAPE), preferably in the regular classroom. This case and other cases led to Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, in 1975. P.L. 94-142 was the predecessor to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) IDEA and its amendments, especially those enacted in 1997, have had a profound impact in the United States.