Individuals With Disabilities Education Act, Essay Example

One of the key values of American society is that every child, regardless of her gender, race and health condition has a right for education. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law that protects the right for appropriate education of young special needs learners and their parents. IDEA (under the name Education for All Handicapped Children Act) was initially enacted in 1975. Since then it has been amended and complemented, and nowadays IDEA ensures that every disabled child gets education in accordance with her needs and abilities in a non-restrictive environment. In addition, IDEA provides guidelines for referring a special needs learner for special services. This paper is the analysis of the initial 1975 version of IDEA act, and key amendments that have been introduced through the past decades. Furthermore, it summarizes the stages of referring a learner with suspected disabilities for evaluation and special education services.

There were six components in the initial IDEA act. The first component, Zero Reject/FAPE, guaranteed free and appropriate public education to all handicapped children. Depending on the state specific legislations, the ages covered were 6-17, and 3-21. Local schools had to give all handicapped learners of appropriate age to get an education in accordance with their needs.

The second component, Nondiscriminatory Identification and Evaluation, protected children from inappropriate placement into special needs education program. It required that the assessment should be held by qualified personnel, in held in a child’s native language, held in a non-discriminatory manner, and administered by a multidisciplinary team. According to this component, assessment had to be held in different areas, and had to comprise of more than one procedure (“Education for All Handicapped Children”).

Individualized Education Program (IEP), the third component of the IDEA legislation, required an IEP to be designed for each child, who was placed under the IDEA services. The IEP had to be developed by an IEP team in order to meet individual student’s needs. The IEP had to be re-updated annually. According to this component IEP had to contain: a) present level of academic performance; b) annual goals; c) evaluation procedures and criteria for them; d) specifics of special education; e) extent of participation in general education and an explanation of non-participation, (f) modifications to the general education environment, (g) projected dates for initiation and duration of services, and (h) annual evaluation of progress made on the (“Education for All Handicapped Children”).

The fourth component of IDEA act is called Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). It required that disabled children had to be educated in a normal classroom, unless it did not meet their needs. This component indicated that the removal of special needs learners from the regular classroom had to happen only when the nature of the learner’s disability did not allow her to be schooled in the regular classroom (“Education for All Handicapped Children”).

Due Process, the fifth component of the IDEA act, was designed in order to provide special needs students and their parents some extent of control over the educational process. In fact, it is a system of procedures that ensures that students’ and their parents’ rights are protected. Due Process required that written parental permission had to be obtained for starting evaluating procedures and before placing a child special needs education program. It ensured that parents had the rights to review their child’s records, to request an independent evaluation, and the right to have an appropriate hearing and to appeal. Finally, the Due Process required that confidentiality had to be maintained (“Education for All Handicapped Children”).

Parental Participation component required that parents had the right to participate in assessment, IEP development and placement of their child. Parents were given access to their child’s academic records, and schools were encouraged to collaborate with them (“Education for All Handicapped Children”).

The IDEA act has been amended several times over the past decades. PL 99-457 (1986), also called Early Intervention Amendment (“The Education For All Handicapped Children Act Amendments of 1986”), was one of the most crucial, as it protected the rights of infants, and toddlers who were suspected to be eligible for special education in the future. This amendment ensured that preschoolers and their families got a family service plan that allowed them to be prepared for entering school setting.

PL 101-476 came into action in 1990, and broadened the scope of opportunities for special needs students, substituting the word “handicapped” with “disabled”. It also announced greater inclusion into community schools, and required that all disabled children had to get a broadened IEP, which had to include plans for continuing education or employment. The IDEA act was renamed after this amendment (“The Education For All Handicapped Children Act Amendments of 1990”).

PL 105-17 (1997) has been a truly significant step towards actualizing the rights of the disabled children, as it changed the approach towards forming an IEP. This amendment allowed parents to participate in developing an IEP for their children, and granted them the right to make decisions about their child’s educational options. In addition, this amendment provided participation of general education teachers in forming the IEP. It also granted disabled learners the opportunity to participate in state and district-wide assessment (“The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997”).

The last significant amendment was IDEA 2004: PL 108-446. It introduced the notion of multi-year IEP, and emphasized the importance of highly qualified special needs educators for providing disabled children with the best education possible. This amendment also introduced some measures to reduce the amount of useless paperwork, and called for closer attention towards students having problems with mastering their educational goals. Another notable change was that under special circumstances, like bringing weapon and drugs to school, a disabled child could be removed from the classroom setting for up to 45 days, even when her misconduct had been caused by disability (Families and Advocates Partnership for Education (FAPE)).

The IDEA act provides a comprehensive set of measures for referring a student with a suspected disability for special education services. The first step is identifying that the child’s learning problems may be caused by disability. Educators and parents can request the evaluation procedure to be conducted. If the request is sent by school staff, a child’s parent or legal guardian must be contacted to request an evaluation.The stage that advances assessment procedure is pre-referral interventions. The IDEA provides extensive educational opportunities for special needs children, but before placing a child under the special education program parents and educators have to make sure she is eligible. Teachers and other staff should put efforts to resolve learner’s educational and behavioral problems, before referring a child for special needs assessment. Nevertheless, sometimes these measures turn ineffective because of the lack of administrative support, or unsatisfactory professional training of the educators involved (Esquivel, Lopez & Nahari, 2007, p.661).

In case pre-referral interventions were unsuccessful, a child should be given an assessment. Assessment is a procedure that helps to define learner’s strength and needs. It allows developing an IEP for the child, and putting her to the environment where her potential can be fully actualized. According to the IDEA act, assessment should be held by a multidisciplinary team, as there are many different tests that should be held before referring a child to a special needs education program. The members of a multidisciplinary team evaluate the learner’s strength and needs in different domains. The results of the assessment allow the team members design an IEP, which is most suitable for the assessed child. Initial assessment envisages using norm- and criterion-referenced tests. Norm-referenced tests allow comparing the student’s performance to that of her peers. At the same time, criterion-referenced assessment procedures allow to measure the student’s proficiency in different areas (Pierangelo & Giuliani, 2008, p.47-48), and help to make an informed decision about the student’s placement.

The next step is the meeting of multidisciplinary team, where parents should come. The team decides whether a child is eligible for IDEA services. In case the answer turns out to be positive, an IEP should be developed within the thirty days time frame. After IEP is written, a meeting should take place, where the members of school staff are present together with the child’s parents or legal guardians. An IEP should be approved by all of them in order to be enacted. The IDEA act demands local educational agencies to review the IEP annually, and supervise the student’s academic progress. Any changes introduced into the IEP should be approved by the child’s parents and educators. Moreover, the child should be re-evaluated for special needs education eligibility at least once in three years.

It is clear that IDEA act has introduced numerous positive changes in the domain of special needs education. The initial act and all the amendments were designed in order to make sure that every disabled child, regardless of the severity of her disability, would be granted an opportunity to get the best education possible. The most significant thing about this act is that it provides the description of the procedures needed to determine the disabled learner’s strength and needs, and put him to the most appropriate educational environment possible.

References

Education for All Handicapped Children Act 1975 Overview. (n.d). Cengage Learning.http://college.cengage.com/education/resources/res_prof/students/spec_ed/legislation/pl_94-142.html

Esquivel, G., Lopez, E.  and Nahari, S. (2007). Multicultural handbook of school psychology:  an interdisciplinary perspective. New-York: Routledge.
Families and Advocates Partnership for Education (FAPE). (n.d). IDEA 2004 Summary. Retrieved from: http://www.fape.org/idea/2004/summary.htm

Pierangelo, R., & Giuliani, G. (2008). Understanding assessment in the special education process: A step-by-step guide for educators. Thousand Oaks, CA: Corwin Press.

The Education For All Handicapped Children Act Amendments of 1986. (n.d). Cengage Learning. Retrieved from: http://college.cengage.com/education/resources/res_prof/students/spec_ed/legislation/pl_99-457.html

The Education For All Handicapped Children Act Amendments of 1990. (n.d). Cengage Learning. Retrieved from:http://college.cengage.com/education/resources/res_prof/students/spec_ed/legislation/pl_101-476.html

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997. (n.d). Cengage Learning. Retrieved from  http://college.cengage.com/education/resources/res_prof/students/spec_ed/legislation/pl_105-17.html