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Matthew Brue
IDEA Essay
Sandi Steinoff-Mueller
Sped 100
November 24, 2014

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Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA, was the first legal act that helped
education towards children with disabilities (Heward W.L). There are six principles that make up
IDEA, and they all must be followed by every school to provide appropriate education, in every
district. The act was passed in 1975 and has been modified since then, the latest in 2004. The six
principles of IDEA are: zero reject, nondiscriminatory identification and assessment, free
appropriate public education and IEP, least restrictive environment, due process safeguards, and
shared decision making. Each of these steps is critical to the plan of action that is trying to be
made.
The first principle is the zero reject principle. Zero reject means that no school can deny a
handicapped child the opportunity to be in a school and to be educated (Heward W.L). The first
step will give the child a chance to learn and excel later in life in a certain area. If the child learns
to be a social person, and school helps the childs social skills, then the child can grow up to be
something that pertains to being a social person.
The second principle is nondiscriminatory identification and assessment, which means a
student is being tested for a disability that a teacher or parent has seen and the individual that is
putting on the test cannot be biased towards the child (Heward W.L). When a teacher notices
their disability, the teacher wants to react fast enough to help with the student. If the child has a
disability, it can be taken care of to help this certain student. The school would never want to
take a student out of a classroom or prevent them from learning.
Free appropriate public education and IEP is the third principle in the IDEA Act. If a
student is found to have a disability, then he or she must be put on an individual education plan,
or an IEP. An IEP is a written plan of goals the student and teachers will try to accomplish in a

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certain time period (Heward W.L). An IEP must be formed for the child, otherwise special
education cannot be formed.
The fourth principle is Least Restrictive Environment, or LRE. One of the most important
steps to IDEA, this principle states that the student with the disorder must be put into the regular
classroom for a certain time during the day (Heward W.L). The regular classroom teacher is not
supposed to send the student to the resource room for every class. The child must be educated
with the other students who do not have a disorder, this way the student can make friendships
with classmates and hopefully want to come to school and encourage them learn more. This
principle is the most controversial principle. Teachers believe getting help in the resource room is
better for the child; but the special education teachers believe putting the child with the other
students will drastically improve their social skills, which will help them in some way in the near
future.
The fifth principle is due process safeguards, which is used for the rights of the parents
and their child. Everything that the child and parents go through is held in confidentiality with
everyone that is involved with the IEP meetings (Heward W.L). Due process safeguards were
created for the families, teachers and everyone else involved. In the IEP meetings everyone
makes sure everything that is said in the meeting stays in the meeting room and is never to be
spoken about to anyone else not involved. Confidentiality is very important when it comes to
these IEP meetings. The student and the family do not want all of the information that was
concluded in the meeting to be let out. Families like to have their privacy when it comes to their
childs educational problems, and do not want their child to be put through any hassle from
others.

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The final principle is shared decision making. The reason for this principle is to make
sure the parents are getting what they think is important for their child (Heward W.L). The
parents get the first choice in what they think will be better for their child, but if they do not like
what the school has to offer, then they must go to a different school. Parents need to
acknowledge the schools ideas, as well and have an open mind to the information that some of
the teachers and administration offer.
IDEA was an important aspect in education when it was brought forth but it has higher
importance in education today. The community has taken an impact as well from IDEA; more
students that suffer from certain disabilities are in the regular classrooms with students without
disabilities. The kids take a different look at what will happen later in their lives when the kids
with a form of IEP, and disability, were in their classroom. It helps the students who do not have
disabilities to connect better with students with a disability, making the transition from a special
classroom to a regular classroom easier for the student. If the students help with the transition of
classroom to classroom, the child will have a better chance of having important social skills in
their life and will go on to live a successful life.

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Abstract Page
There are six main principles of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA
and they all must be followed by every school, in every district. The six principles of IDEA are:
zero reject, nondiscriminatory identification and assessment, free appropriate public education
and IEP, least restrictive environment, due process safeguards, and shared decision making. Each
one of these principles are just as important as the previous when determining the education
steps to an individual. They all must be followed in order to provide appropriate education
within the district.

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Works Cited
Heward, W. L. (20013). Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education (10th ed.).
Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education Inc