The Role of IDEA

in Americas
Education System


























2014

RYAN SCHLESSER


The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was put into act by Congress in
1990. It has been a very significant part of history throughout the later part of the 20
th
century
and still plays a large role today. The act protects children with disabilities rights ensuring them
a free appropriate public education. Children can receive additional special education services
they test for and meet the requirements of IDEA. The six components to IDEA are the key to
understanding how this act works with educators every day.
The history of IDEA started as The All Childrens Handicap Law in 1975 when Congress
passed it. Up until then, any child with disabilities was basically pushed to the curb and isolated.
Which now as educators we now as a big no no. In 1990 Congress decided to make some
changes to this law and it became IDEA, which is what we know it as now with some minor
differences. What IDEA really focused on was Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). This
entitled each student to an individualized education program, regardless of ability. The new
modifications changed the age range to kids from the age to three to 21. The main emphasis of
IDEA was that children with disabilities would be integrated into the regular classroom as much
as they could handle
In 2004 this law was revamped again and strengthened even more for children with
disabilities. And now became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act
(IDEIA). We still use the IDEA acronym even though it has since changed. This act was directly
correlated with The No Child Left Behind. (NCLB) some of the changes congress made was that
educators now had to be highly qualified to teach children with disabilities. The idea of an
Individualized Education Plan (IEP) was included to make sure that each student had a plan
specialized to each of their strengths and weaknesses. All these changes reassured that each
student, regardless of their academic capability, would be receiving the most appropriate
education.
Children that apply to IDEA is a broad range now, and programs exist to make sure that
the kids that were falling through the cracks before and were struggling are not now. IDEA
describes children with disabilities as a disorder in one or more of the basic psychological
processes involved in understanding or in using language, spoken or written, which the disorder
may manifest itself in an imperfect ability to listen, think, speak, read, write, spell, or to do
mathematical calculations. Now not all disabilities are included and you dont automatically get
into this act or earn an IEP. The categories that a child can qualify for under IDEA are the
following: The thirteen categories of disabilities are; autism, deaf/blind, deafness, hearing
impaired, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, serious emotional
disturbance, specific learning disabilities, speech or language impairment, traumatic brain injury,
visual impairment including blindness, and other health impairment.
How educators go about determining if a child has one of these conditions it can either be
extremely easy or difficult. There are kids who you can tell just from a glance that they do have a
disability, and then there are other kids that educators have to monitor very closely. These are the
children that we need to pay even closer attention too. Some of the things you can do as an
educator to make sure every student that should receive an IEP gets one, is taking notes on tell-
tale signs. Acting out in class, having significant troubles compared to their peers in the
academic world. If the student is hard of hearing, or having troubles seeing things we need to
make sure they are getting tested early. If a student needs to be tested for an IEP, the educators
and special education teachers need to make sure that a few dependent factors that dont change,
so the results are not skewed.

There are six guidelines that as an educator you have to follow and that will create the
most appropriate learning for children with disabilities. The very first point to IDEA is that there
will be zero reject. What this means is that an educator cannot turn down a child with disabilities
because they dont feel like it, or because the child is not the right skin color. This will assure
that every student that qualifies will get the most appropriate education that they can. The second
point fits right in with the first point, the second one is nondiscriminatory identification and
evaluation. What this is, is as an educator you must use nonbiased, multifactorial methods of
evaluation. If an educator does see a child with a possible disability, they need to take it upon
yourself to take notes on the child, if there is an IEP meeting in the future, the educator can take
those notes to the meeting, and share his/her opinion.
The next point is possibly the biggest most important thing to IDEA: free appropriate
public education. Why this is really the most essential part of IDEA is, can be stressed with a
word in it- APPROPRIATE. It does not say the best education, as an educator we have to give
the child the most appropriate education for the student. This is when an IEP really comes in.
you have to make an IEP for every single child with a disability that qualifies for IDEA. What an
IEP entails is everything the child does throughout the day, what they can do, things they do
good, what they struggle with, if the student will be in the regular classroom, if they do need to
be in the resource room for how long, and what they are working on during that time. It is the
Holy Grail for special education teachers. Another point is least restrictive environment.
The child must be educated with children without disabilities to the maximum extent
appropriate to each students capabilities. This is one of the important parts to make sure that
children with disabilities can learn some social skills, and also for their own self-acceptance with
their own peers that they have grown up with. The fifth component is due process safeguards.
This is for the parents and childrens rights and that they are protected to the fullest. If anything
is messed by the educators that the parents have the right to say that they were in the wrong. It
also goes the other way that if the child does do something wrong or inappropriate the parents
know why and that everyone is on the same page. The final component is shared decision
making. Schools must collaborate with the parents. The student cannot just be tested for a
disability and put in to a resource room without the parents consent. Everyone has to be on the
same page and understand everything that is going on at the school.
In conclusion, IDEA has revolutionized American Educational system. The six
components to IDEA has made the jobs of the educators and the children that qualify for this so
much easier, and have benefited both of them in the long run. It has given the children with
disabilities a purpose through school, and have completely changed the lives of these children.
This is how IDEA has made the American Education System that much better.

















Works Cited
Heyward, W. L (2013). Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education. New
Jersey: Pearson
http://www.help4adhd.org/education/rights/idea