IDEA is an abbreviation for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
This law, established in 1990, provides the base from which children receive special education services. IDEA is actually a set of amendments to the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1977 (EHA). This is important to know because it means that schools were supposed to be in compliance with the law, and provide appropriate special education services for over twenty years now.
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1977 has two major points of focus that parents should be aware of. First, all states must establish a method of indentification, evaluation, and placement of children with disabilities. This placement must provide full educational opportunities to all children with disabilities. Secondly, and perhaps even more importantly, states must insure that children with disabilities are educated to the maximum extent possible with children who do not have disabilities. The law specifies that removal of children from the regular classroom occur only when the nature or severity of the handicap is such that education in regular classes cannot be achieved even with extra support or services. This means that special supports and/or services should be provided to the child with disabilities in the regular classroom before the decision is made to remove the child to a segregated classroom.
In 1986, the EHA was amended to include children ages 3 to 5 years with disabilities in preschool programs. This amendment also established a program providing services to infants and toddlers with disabilities, which in our state is typically referred to as the Babies Can't Wait early intervention program from the school systems in Georgia.
The EHA was amended again in 1990 and this is when it became known as IDEA. All terms that were previously phrased "handicapped children" were changed to "children with disabilities". A few other important amendments in 1990 were:
1) autism and traumatic brain injury were added to the list of disabilities eligible for special services.
2) the definition of Related Services now specifically includes "therapeutic receation," "social work services," and "rehabilitation counseling" as examples school systems may be required to provide.
3) Individualized Education Programs(IEPs) must include "transition planning and services" for a student no later than age 16 to plan for activities after that student has graduated from school.
States must insure that children with disabilities are educated to the maximum extent possible with children who do not have disabilities.
Also in 1990, a priority was placed on programs that increased the contact between children with disabilities and their non-disabled peers, and two definitions related to Assistive Technology were added to the law.
Finally, on June 4, 1997, President Clinton signed into law a bill reauthorizing IDEA with several important changes. A few of these changes are reprinted below as found in Jean Estes' Advocating for Your Child's Education.
Parent Rights
*"School systems now must invite parents to participate in eligibility meetings as well as placement meetings." (Eligibility meetings determine whether or not your child is eligible to receive special education services.)
*Parents must now consent to reevaluations as well as initial evaluations.
*The term "parent" now also can be defined as including legal guardians and surrogate parents.
IEPs
*A regular education teacher must be part of the IEP team if the child is to participate in regular education.
*IEPs must describe how a child's disability impacts his/her performance in the regular curriculum and should contain goals that detail the supports needed to help the child succed in regular education. IEPs must also include an explanation for the time which he/she will not participate in regular education.
*Behavior modification plans will now need to be addressed through the IEP process.
*The new law seems to presume that children with disabilities will participate in regular education to some extent.
There is more to IDEA, this article is based on the explanation of the law published in Advocating for Your Child's Education
