In this paper, we will discuss The Education for All Handicapped Children Act also known as Public Law (PL) 94-142 of 1975. This piece of legislation encompasses many aspects of equal opportunity in education for handicapped children, ranging from individualized education programs, assessments, available technology, resources, placement, curriculum, evaluations, and learning environment. We will also evaluate the history of this law, providing insight about how it became what it is today. In addition to reviewing amendments of the law over time, we will discuss the law and its relationship with disabled students (regardless of the intensity of their disability). Finally, we will review the implications of the law as it relates to classroom management, instruction, and its impact on students and teachers alike.
Description
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA or EHA), or Public Law (PL) 94-142 of 1975 mandated any school receiving federal funds to provide a free, appropriate public education for all children between the ages of five and 21, regardless of emotional or physical disabilities. Public schools were required to evaluate these children and formulate a plan to educate them in a way comparable to their non-handicapped peers. PL 94-142 also required an individualized education program (IEP) for every student with a disability. The program should be based on a multi-disciplinary assessment and incorporate any related services necessary to help that child. The IEP included both short-term and long-term goals for the student. The school had to take steps to ensure that each student classroom placement was in the most normal setting possible providing a non-restrictive environment (LRE) for the child.
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Assistive Technology Training Online Project. (2005). AT laws. Retrieved from http://atto.buffalo.edu/registered/ATBasics/Foundation/Laws/specialed.php#EHA1
Casey, Dr. B. L. (2009). Creating Effective Classroom Management Strategies for Special Education Students. Bright Hub. Retrieved from http://www.brighthub.com/education/special/articles/30787.aspx
Howell, A. (1998). Law and exceptional students. University of North Carolina. Retrieved from http://www.unc.edu/~ahowell/exceplaw.html#in%20the%20beginning
Sproles, H., Panther, E. E., & Lanier, J. E. (1978). PL 94-142 and Its Impact on the Counselor's Role. Personnel & Guidance Journal, 57(4), 210. Retrieved from EBSCOhost.
Wikipedia. (n.d.). Education for all handicapped children. Retrieved from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Education_for_All_Handicapped_Children_Act
The Gaskin Settlement Agreement is an agreement between a group of families and advocacy organizations who filed a class action lawsuit against the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) on behalf of a group of children with disabilities in 1994. This agreement does not change a student’s placement, program, or IEP in any manner. Only the IEP team has the authority to make modifications that will impact a student’s IEP. The main goal of this settlement is to make sure that IEP teams will determine if the goals in a student’s IEP may be implemented in a general education setting with supplementary aids and services prior to considering an environment that is more restrictive in nature. The elements of this case were designed to help increase the capacity of school districts to provide related services, SDI that is appropriate, supplementary aids and services, and supports to students who have disabilities that are placed in general education classrooms. The PDE lists many important elements of the Settlement Agreement to be aware of...
There were almost one million children who were excluded from getting education and many children who had only limited access to materials. In response to this concern, Congress passed Public Law 94-142 in 1975, named the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA). This law said 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.” This law also assured that children with disabilities have a free appropriate public education and provided assistance to States to provide for this education("Archived: 25 Year History of the IDEA."). This law was eventually changed, modified and amended was amended in 1997. It is now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
On January 1st, 1975 public law number 94-142 was The Education for All Handicapped Children Act. This law secured the fundamental ideals, rights and responsibilities to ascertain equal access to public education for all children who are crippled. What education has done in the years it has been around is that it simply makes life one sizably extensive, perplexed system of steps and processes. Our schools don’t accommodate the goal of a true education, but it makes it appear that they are. It would seem that the goal for a true education is for someone to absorb attention, but it is not always right to fill adolescent minds with careless facts or the ways of the world that is decided by a committee. The way that attention is gained for students is to give their own perception on things and have their own notion. From Report of the Massachusetts Board of Education, Horace Mann states that, “education, then, beyond all other devices of human origin, is the great equalizer of the conditions of men, – the balance wheel of the social machinery.” It explicates that the consequentiality of kinds of education, including political, moral, religious, perceptive, and physical are paramount to people and to education.
I chose to do my paper on students with Individualized Education Program’s for this fact alone. The majority of these students do not look any different from the other students. They want to be a part of the general education classroom setting. They may have mainstreaming and inclusion with IEP’s which makes the lives for these students more thriving. The main goal I have discovered in my reading of Individualized Education Program is placing the student at the center. The student is the main priority and their IEP focuses on meeting their educational needs. In reading, Inclusion and Mainstreaming I learned in the past, physically and mentally disabled children were often stricken form society and placed in separate institutions. This ended on November 29, 1975 when the Education for all Handicapped Children Act was signed. The Act required the government to provide ample funding for all handicapped children from ages 3-...
What do we do with children with disabilities in the public school? Do we include them in the general education class with the “regular” learning population or do we separate them to learn in a special environment more suited to their needs? The problem is many people have argued what is most effective, full inclusion where students with all ranges of disabilities are included in regular education classes for the entire day, or partial inclusion where children spend part of their day in a regular education setting and the rest of the day in a special education or resource class for the opportunity to work in a smaller group setting on specific needs. The need for care for children with identified disabilities both physical and learning continues to grow and the controversy continues.
Hutchinson, David. (2012). The essential counselor: Process, skills, and techniques (2nd ed). Thousand Oaks, CA.: Sage Publications, Inc.
"The Americans With Disabilities Act is one of the most significant laws in American History. The preamble to the law states that it covers 43,000,000 Americans."(Frierson, p.3) Before the Americans With Disabilities Act(A.D.A.) was passed, employers were able to deny employment to a disabled worker, simply because he or she was disabled. With no other reason other than the persons physical disability were they turned away or released from a job. The Americans With Disabilities Act prevented this type of discrimination by establishing rules and regulations designed to protect persons with physical disabilities. With a workforce made up of 43,000,000 people, it is impossible to ignore the impact of these people. The Americans With Disabilities Act not only opened the door for millions of Americans to get back into the workplace, it is paving the road for new facilities in the workplace, new training programs and creating jobs designed for a disabled society.
Prior to 1975, educational options for a child living with a mental or physical disability were limited. The family of the handicapped child was most likely forced down an path that lead to the institutionalization of the child and distancing the child from the benefits of receiving a free and public education. It was after federal legislation passed the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (42 U.S.C. § 1983) that monumental changes began to develop that allowed a better understanding of the needs and capabilities of people with various handicapping conditions. Soon after this legislation, Public Law 94-142, also known as the Education for all Handicapped Children’s Act of 1975 (EHA) would further increase the public awareness by providing a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for children suffering from disabilities. Following the EHA legislation reformations concerning the education of disabled individuals would soon become numerous and legislative acts were passed enabling accommodations for disabled individuals in the fields of vocations and technology. In 1990, President Gerald Ford signed legislation replacing P.L. 94-142 with the Individual with Disabilities Education Act of 1990 (IDEA, 20 USC 1400). By definition, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a law ensuring services to children with disabilities throughout the nation (US Department of Education, 2011).
As stated by the founding fathers of America “All men are created equal.” Black, white, brown, short, tall, smart, and dumb, all are created equally. Therefore every person deserves fair judgement. Unfortunately, it is a profound fact that not everyone is born normal and capable of task typical for a common person, who is free from disability. In my opinion, the quote “All men are created equal” serves to promote a friendly environment that helps encourage equality among people and aids to recognize the similarities rather than the differences that separates men. Even so, with this hope, the disabled community still struggles for equality. According to Legal Rights by the National Association of the Deaf (NAD), “Almost 10 percent of all American have some kind of hearing loss. These ten percent suffer from unfair treatment from professional, social and government service providers, including court and police” (NAD 1). Obviously, because deaf and hard of hearing have limited hearing, their communication and social skills are below the expectation of a common hearing person. Thus, most of these people are ignored, neglected, and discriminated against. However, as a citizen protected by the American with Disabilities Act (ADA), deaf and hard of hearing individuals deserve equal rights and must be accommodated for as a disabled person.
According to LD Online (2015), Public Law 94-142, also known as Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EHA), was passed in 1975. Since then, the law has taken on many changes in order to improve its effectiveness, and is now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 2004 (IDEA 04). The original Public Law 94-142 guaranteed a free and appropriate public education to each child with a disability from the age 3 to 21 (LD Online, 2015). It is required to make efforts towards improving how children with disabilities are identified and educated, as well as provide evaluations for the success of those efforts. Furthermore, the law provided due process protections
Public Law 94-142: The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, now called Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), requires states to provide free, appropriate public education (FAPE) for every child regardless of disability. This federal law was the first to clearly define the rights of disabled children to receive special education services if their disability affects their educational performance. A parent of a special education student also has basic rights under IDEA including the right to have their child evaluated by the school district and to be included when the school district meets about the child or makes decisions about his or her education. If a child is identified as in need of special education services, the school district must devise a written individual education program (IEP) for the child, which includes related services. An IEP is a statement of a student’s special education and related services including speech services, psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, counseling and assistive technology and transportation. In addition, this legally binding, individualized plan outlines reasonable educational goals for the student and is reviewed and updated yearly.
Malala Yousafzai (n.d.), the youngest person to be nominated for a Noble Peace Prize and education activist stated that:
A free appropriate public education (FAPE) means that an education will be provided at the expense of the public for all students without regard to severity of disability. Within the FAPE students with disabilities will have an individual education placement (IEP) plan create and implemented to meet their unique educational goals and needs. A least restrictive environment is a setting that provides the student with disabilities the maximum general education time with peers while allowing educational needs to be meet. Procedural safeguards are rights of children with disabilities and their parents that schools must provide. Parents must consent for initial, all following evaluations and placement decisions.
Since the enactment of Public Law 94-142 (The Education for All Handicapped Children Act) in 1975, approximately one-half of all hearing impaired students in the United States have had the opportunity to be mainstreamed into regular education classrooms. This law was intended to ensure that any student with disabilities had access to a ."..free and appropriate education as identified in each child's IEP."
To begin with, full inclusion in the education system for people with disabilities should be the first of many steps that are needed to correct the social injustices that people with disabilities currently face. Students with disabilities are far too frequently isolated and separated in the education system (Johnson). They are often provided a diluted, inferior education and denied meaningful opportunities to learn. There are many education rights for children with disabilities to p...