Kathleen Hill

African American education was seen as a way to ensure that they could assume lower class work but not to provide equitable or equal access.

Segregated education is made legal under the guise of separate but equal.

Legislation to provide equal access to education for African Americans. Despite the law, special education students, majority African American, were still separated from general population, majority White (Skiba et al., 2008, p.265).

"Outlawed discrimination on the basis of race, color, religion, sex, or national origin, required equal access to public places and employment, and enforced desegregation of schools and the right to vote. It did not end discrimination, but it did open the door to further progress" (National Park Service, 2016).

Address inequality of access for low income students and ensures resources (Wright, 2010, p.1)

Federal government authorization of grants to states for vocational rehabilitation services with a focus on serving those with special needs (U.S. Department of Education, 2017).

According to Wright (2010), "Congress intended that all children with disabilities would “have a right to education, and to establish a process by which State and local educational agencies may be held accountable for providing educational services for all handicapped children" (p.1).

School systems receiving public funds must provide equal access to education for children with special needs (Wright, 2010, p.1).

Purpose to "prevent the intensification of problems connect with mislabeling and high dropout rates among minority children with disabilities" (Skiba et al., 2008, p.265).

Further improved on the law from 1997