Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

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pieces with blue background.

The 1960s and 1970s was a time period full of reform for minority groups in the United States. Most people recognize this time period for making great strides for females and people of different ethnicities, but there was also a great amount of progress made for people with disabilities. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was signed into effect by President Gerald Ford in 1975. The IDEA website defines this law as, "a law that makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children" (IDEA). The IDEA tells states and public agencies how to provide over 7.5 million eligible children with special education, related services, and early intervention. Furthermore, the IDEA authorizes formula grants to support special education, early intervention, and related services as well as discretionary grants to support various other resources to help people with disabilities.

The IDEA is something that I am very passionate about as a special educator. I am proud of the people who advocated for their rights and pushed for change. Before the IDEA, students with disabilities were left behind and were not given a fair chance at the success they were always capable of achieving. Now, the public school system is held accountable to doing right by each child, with or without a disability. I see the wonderful effects of IDEA each day, whether in what I am learning in my special education acts or what I am seeing in the classrooms I visit each week. The IDEA provides funding to educators and parents to provide the tools necessary to improve educational outcomes for each student. It also provides funding to research being done to advance and validate best teaching practices for this group of students. The impacts that the IDEA have had on people with disabilities is never ending.