THE INDIVIDUALS WITH

DISABILITIES
EDUCATION ACT ESSAY

Dakota State
LindsyUniversity
Edwards
lredwards@pluto.dsu.edu

IDEA ESSAY

Intro Persons Exceptionalities- SPED 100

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Abstract

In 1975 congress passed a law stating that all children with disabilities will receive a free
appropriate public education. This law was called the Education for All Handicapped Children
Act, and was later changed to Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA is used
throughout school systems today. IDEA helps a child with a disability prepare for their future.
This is done by an individual education plan (IEP). An IEP is required for a student with a
disability, and is rewritten every 3 years, unless needed sooner. IDEA has six major principles
used as guidelines. The six principles are: zero reject, nondiscriminatory evaluation, free
appropriate public education (FAPE), least restrictive environment (LRE), procedural safeguards,
and parent participation and shared decision making.

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In 1975 congress passed a law to ensure all students with disabilities have the right to a
free appropriate education. This law was called the Education for All Handicapped Children Act,
and according to the Exceptional Children, congress reauthorized and amended this law five
times. It was renamed twice within the changes. In the 1990s it was renamed to the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), and again in 2004 to the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Improvement Act. IDEA has a strong influence on todays school systems. IDEA has
changed the responsibilities for educators, administrators, parents, and students with disabilities.
The purpose of IDEA is to ensure students with disabilities will receive a free appropriate
education that is fit to their individual needs. IDEAs purpose is to help meet each childs
individual needs. IDEA helps the student meet their own unique needs by preparing them to
further their education, employment, and to help them live independently. Helping prepare
students with disabilities is important because one day the student may live on their own or in an
assisted living facility. Teaching students with disabilities, every day abilities, will help them
with their future and help them live as independently as their disability allows them to.
According to Exceptional Children, IDEA ensures that the rights of students with disabilities and
their parents are protected. It also assists the states to help provide for the education of all
children with disabilities. Another purpose IDEA proposes is to help assist states that provide
services to infants and toddlers. Being able to provide an education to infants and toddlers with
disabilities will help these children start learning earlier, teaching them to share and get along
with other students of a similar age. IDEA ensures that teachers and parents are prepared with the
necessary tools to improve educational results for children with disabilities. IDEA also assess the
effectiveness of efforts to educate children with disabilities.

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IDEA has six major principles. The first principle is the zero reject principle, which states
that all schools must provide an education to all children with disabilities. No child with a
disability can be excluded from a free public education no matter how severe the disability may
be. It is a requirement to provide education to all children with a disability between the ages of 6
and 17. This principle is important because all children should receive an education, even if it is
not a standard education. Receiving some type of education will benefit every person
individually, because learning a simple skill, such as telling time, will help a person throughout
their entire life. According to Exceptional Children, if a school provides education services to
children without a disability between the ages of 3 to 5 and 18 to 21 the school must also provide
it to children with a disability. IDEA has a child find system that is used to locate and keep track
of children who have, or are suspected of having, a disability between birth and age 21 (Heward,
2013). The child find system is useful when it comes to making sure that all children are
receiving an education.
The second principle is the nondiscriminatory evaluation, which states that schools must
use nonbiased methods when evaluating a student for a disability. This principles is valuable
because it makes it so that teachers cannot label a student without the proper evaluation. This
principle cannot discriminate against a race, religion, culture, or native language. According to
Exceptional Children, all tests must be administered in the students native language; teachers
and administrators cannot base the outcome of the student off of a single test result, this is known
as protection in evaluation procedures. Giving the test in the native language is better than giving
it in English because for some students English is a second language to them. This could make
the test more challenging for that student, and could lead to inaccurate test results. It is also

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beneficial to not base the results off of one test because the student could have an off day which
would lead to inaccurate results.
The third principle is Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). This principle states
that all children with disabilities will receive a free appropriate public education, no matter how
severe the disability is. The education must be provided at a public expense, meaning that is has
no cost to the parents. This principle is established to ensure that schools set up an individualized
education program (IEP) fit to each students disability. According to Exceptional Children, an
IEP specifies the childs present levels of performance, identifies measurable annual goals, and
describes the specific special education and related services that will be provided to benefit the
student. An IEP is rewritten every three years, unless it is needed sooner. IDEA makes it so that
the school must provide the necessary tools needed to help assist a student with their disability,
whether it is an accommodation of a bus with wheel chair accessibility, an electronic device to
help a student speak, or a griper that is used on a pencil. IDEA has regulations to ensure that the
requirements of FAPE are met.
The forth principle is least restrictive environment (LRE). Under IDEA, LRE is used to
make certain that students with a disability are educated in the general education classroom to
the maximum extent appropriate. Students with disabilities are only to be removed from the
general education classroom, into a separate classroom or school, when the severity of their
disability prevents them from receiving an appropriate education. According to Exceptional
Children, an IEP will state if the student with a disability is removed from the general education
classroom at any time of the day; this must include a justification on why the student is being
pulled out, and not participating with their peers that are nondisabled in extracurricular activities,
assemblies, or other nonacademic activities. Having this stated in the IEP is superb because it

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makes it so teachers and administrators must give justification on why the student is not allowed
to participate, so that the student is not excluded simply because of their disability.
The fifth principle is the procedural safeguards. This principle is used to protect the rights
of students with disabilities and their parents using an extensive set of procedures. The parent
must give consent to any test done on a child. Schools must confidentially contain all records of
a student with a disability and allow the parents access to them, if and when the parent asks for
them. It is important for the parents to have accesses to these files. This allows the parents to
keep up with their childs education and to observe whether or not their child is progressing in
their educational studies. According to Exceptional Children, if a parent is unsatisfied with the
results the school has, the parents can obtain an independent evaluation at public expense.
Parents may request a due processes hearing if the parents are unsatisfied on the evaluation or
placement of FAPE. The parents are allowed an opportunity to resolve the matter through
mediation by a third party before holding a due processes hearing (Heward, 2013). Allowing
parents a due processes hearing can be beneficial, and help if other parents are having the same
issue in another school district. If there is a hearing, the state must reimburse the attorneys fee
for the parents involved in the case. The school is also protected if the filed complaint is
ridiculous and impractical. According to Exceptional Children, the law allows the court to award
reasonable attorneys fees to school district against the attorney of a parent. This helps protect
schools if the filed complaint is used improperly, such as harassment.
The sixth principle is the parent participation and shared decision making. When
determining the students IEP goals and placement decisions, schools must include and discuss
the placement with the parents of the student with a disability. The parents input must be
considered before making any final decisions on an IEP. It is important to include parents;

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including the parents will ensure they know where their child is placed and how the student is
doing academically. It also allows the parent to know whether or not their child is getting the
proper education provided to them. Having educators send home weekly or monthly reports with
a student, shows that the educator is trying to have contact with the parent, and that the educator
is interested in how the student is doing academically. Parent involvement in a students
academics is very important, especially if the student has a disability.
IDEA provides many useful and beneficial rules. Without IDEA children with disabilities
could be denied a free appropriate education. Denying a child, especially one with a disability, is
immoral and wrong. All children have a right to receive an education, and without IDEA that
would not always be possible. IDEA has six major principles that help guide teachers with
students who have a disability.

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Work Cited

Heward, W. L. (2013). Exceptional Children: Pearson New International Edition An

Introduction to Special Education. (10th ed., international ed.). Harlow: Pearson.