SPD 501

Ruling that stated that a child who was "weak in mind" could be expelled from school. Children with disabilities were continually disregarded and excluded from education. The thought was that these students wouldn't benefit from being in school.

First conference discussion the education of students with disabilities. The goal of the conference was to establish programs for students with special needs. This was the beginning of the integration of children with special needs into classrooms and the movement from institutions to general education.

Expanded state grant programs for students with disabilities. Provided grants to institutions to train special educators. Created Regional resource centers.

Since segregation was illegal it was argued that it was unconstitutional for the board to prevent students from receiving education. This was an important case because it began the official process of recognizing that students with special needs deserved the same rights and privileges as neurotypical students.

Prohibited discrimination against qualified persons with disabilities in programs that receive federal funding. Programs started to be regulated and if they did not serve all students equally they started to have their federal funding withheld.

A huge milestone in the progression of the rights of students with disabilities. Federal money was provided to states that offered students the right to a free and public education. They were needed to have an IEP made and have their parents be included in the process. By federally mandating these procedures students could start to be guaranteed a quality special education.

Allowed parents to recover attorneys fees if they win a due process hearing. Parents had no recourse under EAHCA to recover money spent if they sued the school district. Finally parents are given recourse to recover the many times large amounts of money spent to fight to get the education their child deserves.

Renamed EAHCA to IDEA
Added traumatic brain injury and autism to disabilities category
Transition requirement for children aged 16 years
Changed language so that states were not immune from lawsuits.
By making these changes the law helped to provide families with the help they needed to navigate with their child with special needs. With the introduction of and IFSP children had a plan in place to guarantee service providers and help for their families. Giving structure to the system so that babies would get the early intervention services needed to help them begin the steps at a young age to start growth right from the start.

Added new parts to the IEP and changed the IEP team
Added new disciplinary procedures
Required states to offer parents mediation to parents in due process hearings.
These amendments helped to make sure that students with disabilities were receiving a quality public education. Before this too much emphasis was being placed on making sure that laws were followed and not enough on requiring high expectations of students and also requiring that they had quality, trained educators teaching them.

Defined a high quality special education teacher.
Removed short term objectives from IEP's except for extreme disabilities.
Encouraged use or RTI.
With this improvement there was a detailed outline of what a special educator should have as their qualifications. Making sure that there was an emphasis on high performance in the classroom and the teachers that could make that happen.