Mills Vs Board Of Education Case Study

The third legal issue I chose was Mills vs The Board of Education of The District of Columbia. In 1972 this case was brought to the courts representing seven children, as well as nearly 18,000 other students in the District of Columbia area. These children were classified as having behavioral, intellectual, and emotional disabilities, as well as hyperactivity. All of these children were denied an educational services and public education by being excluded, suspended, expelled, reassigned, and transferred. They were denied based solely on their disability, and without due process. This case was the other of the two that laid the ground work for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to be passed.
I also chose to take a closer look at

some of the public laws that pertain to special education. The first is Public Law 99-457 (The Preschool Law), went into effect in 1986, and is an amendment to the Education for all Handicapped Children Act (EHA). This law extends the EHA to include children with disabilities from birth to age five. Part H of the law deals with children aged birth to three, and is intended for the early intervention of children with disabilities or developmental delays. The state is governing agency that is supposed to oversee this service. Part B of the law deals with children aged three to five, and extends the Free and Appropriate Public Education to these children and their families. The impact of this law is that families can get help for their infant and toddler children, who are developmentally behind, with skills that should have been developed, some of these skills include communicating, crawling, walking, running, and social behaviors. It also allows children with disabilities to receive an education that is appropriate at no extra charge to the families.
The next law that I looked into is Public Law 101-476, it is another amendment to EHA that occurred in 1990. In this amendment, the government changed the name from EHA, to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA (Person First law). It became known as person first, because they wanted the child to be known first and their disability to be known second. In this law the phrase handicapped children, became individuals with disabilities. Benefits and services were now extended to pertain to children with autism and traumatic brain injuries. Another section of the law covered transportation service, starting when the child turns sixteen, from school to different community agencies. One of the last changes this law made, was that children with disabilities must be placed in a classroom with children without disabilities if it happens to be their Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). One of the main impacts of this law was that people were no longer defined by their disability, rather their disability was just one aspect of the child. Children were now able to go to school, learn with, play with, and be with kids their own age.
One of the roles of a para-educator is to support the student, and reinforce instructions given by the teacher. Another role of the para-educator is to assist in giving and scoring tests, and assist students with school work. Watching and assisting the students getting on and off the bus, on field trips, in the cafeteria at lunch, and on the playground is another role of the para-educator. The para-educator must also keep track the student’s progress, as it is needed for their individual education plan. They also have to assist the child with disabilities in a classroom with non-disabled disabled, and follow the lesson plan of the teacher. Communication is also a key element for a para, communicating information from the parents to the teachers, and well as communicating amongst the team members about the student.