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History of special education.

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744———Special Education, History of
Peterson, J. M., & Hittie, M. M. (2003). Inclusive teaching:
Creating effective schools for all learners. Boston: Allyn
& Bacon.
Sands, D. J., Kozleski, E. B., & French, N. K. (2000).
Inclusive education for the 21st century. Belmont,
CA: Wadsworth.
SPECIAL EDUCATION, HISTORY OF
The special education movement can be characterized
as having three major phases, exclusion and isolation,
access and inclusion, and accountability and
empowerment. Historically, up until the mid-1960s
and 1970s, disability was viewed as an abnormality or
“freak of nature,” and individuals who had disabilities
were forced into isolation and exclusion. During the
civil rights era through the 1980s, parents and
advocates pushed to shift this perspective and gain
rights for individuals with disabilities through access
and inclusion. From the 1990s to the present,
individuals with disabilities have become empowered
and are working toward redefining their role and
identity in society as a cultural phenomenon rather
than inferior to able-bodied, able-minded individuals
in the dominant mainstream. Additionally, systems
such as case law and statutes, public and private
programs, and advocacy organizations have been
created to make schools accountable for providing
equal educational opportunity for all students,
including individuals with disabilities. This entry
reviews the political and social aspects that influenced
each of these historical phases in special education.
Isolation and Exclusion
Up until the mid-twentieth century, individuals with
disabilities were excluded from mainstream society,
often being housed in institutions that isolated them
from the outside world and their families. Individuals
with disabilities were considered abnormal and unable
to function in society. It was said that such individuals
disrupted and negatively influenced those in the main-
stream, which caused many families to stow away their
family member with a disability in attics or remote
places. Individuals with disabilities were treated as
second-class citizens, and often states took custody,
which disempowered families from having rights with
regard to their child with a disability.
Because individuals with disabilities were viewed
as a burden to society and uneducable, the conditions
of institutions were often inhumane, with solitary con-
finement being the norm. It was not until the early
1900s that schools began to open their doors to indi-
viduals with disabilities as a result of parent advocacy
groups. However, institutionalization and isolationism
continued to prevail until the early 1970s. In fact, the
last institutions were dismantled during the Reagan
administration in the mid-1980s during the deinstitu-
tionalization movement.
Access and Inclusion
The civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s had a
major impact on the treatment of individuals with dis-
abilities, and its ripple effect took hold through a series
of court cases. Brown v. Board of Education forever
changed the treatment of all students in education
because of the change in educational law and procedure,
which had a tremendous effect on school policies and
procedures. The Brown case put desegregation at the
forefront of equitable education and outlawed segrega-
tion based on unalterable characteristics such as race
and disability because it violated equal protections and
denied children equal educational opportunity.
The primary contention of the Brown case, that seg-
regation by race was a denial of equal educational
opportunity, became the gateway for the disability
movement because children with disabilities were
experiencing total exclusion, at best separate schooling
through institutions, with the norm being no access to
schooling at all. In 1972, two landmark cases,
Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens
(PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Mills v.
Board of Education of the District of Columbia,
became the catalysts for the right-to-education move-
ment in the disability community. The PARC ruling
stated that individuals with mental retardation between
the ages of six and twenty-one must be provided with
a free public education in programs comparable to
their nondisabled peers. The Mills case paved the way
for the right to due process and procedural safeguards

such as the right to a hearing with representation, a
record, and an impartial officer; the right to appeal; the
right to have access to records; and the requirement of
written notice during all phases of the process. Almost
simultaneously, in 1973, another important act was
passed, Public Law (P.L.) 93-112, the Rehabilitation
Act. Section 504, as it is often referenced, stated that
any agency or activity receiving federal funding could
not discriminate against or deny benefits to individuals
with disabilities.
In spite of these landmark decisions and the addi-
tional forty-six cases filed in twenty-eight states fol-
lowing these decisions, school districts continued to
plead that they did not have the financial, program-
matic, and staffing resources to provide adequate equal
educational opportunity. As a result, the federal gov-
ernment increased its role in special education through
the Education of All Handicapped Children Action
(EAHCA) or P.L. 94-142, which was passed into law in
1975. The primary purpose of this bill was to provide
not only an educational bill of rights but also financial
incentives to assist schools in providing equal educa-
tional opportunity. This bill marked the beginning of an
era of disability rights and inclusion. In the next twenty
years, public education went through major growing
pains to accommodate individuals with disabilities and
shift its perspective toward the inclusion of all individ-
uals with disabilities, ranging from those who are med-
ically fragile with multiple disabilities to those with
mild learning disabilities.
Simultaneously, society at large went through major
shifts in perspective as individuals with disabilities
became more visible in the educational system and
participated in everyday activities within their neigh-
borhood communities. As a result of educational oppor-
tunity, individuals with disabilities were not only
attending public schools and general education classes,
but also graduating from high school and going on to
college. This was a big shift in consciousness from the
early part of the century when isolationism and exclu-
sion were not only the norm but encouraged. Many dis-
ability advocacy groups gained popularity during this
era, even though their roots began well before 1975.
Without the dedication and mobilization of parents
and families, many believe that the disability rights
movement would not have succeeded. Parents and
Special Education, History of———745
families banded together and affiliated themselves
with national organizations to push local school dis-
tricts and key personnel as well as lobby state and
national politicians. Many of these groups (e.g., Asso-
ciation for Retarded Citizens, The Association for
Persons with Severe Handicaps, Council for Excep-
tional Children) continue to be the largest and most
influential lobbying forces today.
In the 1980s, there was much resistance to inclusion
of individuals with varying disabilities, in part because
teachers had not been trained or educated in how to pro-
vide inclusive education and resources were limited for
implementing appropriate inclusion programming.
Because parent advocacy groups had already begun to
organize in the 1970s, these groups continued to apply
pressure on the local school districts and practiced their
right to due process. In 1986, the Handicapped
Children’s Protection Act was passed, which afforded
courts the authority to award attorney’s fees to parents
or guardians who were in litigation.
In addition, during the Reagan administration, early
childhood intervention became of interest as reports
demonstrated the long-term success of early interven-
tion programs from the 1960s and 1970s. As a result,
the Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities Act (ITDA)
was passed in 1986, which is now a subchapter under
the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Through ITDA, parents and families receive compre-
hensive services for their child from the onset of diag-
nosis through school-age, typically birth through age
five. These services differ from what is provided in the
public education system because they are developmen-
tal in nature. Thus, a heavy emphasis is placed on work-
ing with families to promote the development of the
physical, cognitive, communicative, social/emotional,
and adaptive abilities of the child.
At the end of the 1980s, the Americans with
Disabilities Act (ADA), which afforded antidiscrimi-
nation protection, was introduced in Congress. This
was a momentous time for the disability community as
many came together to educate and advocate for the
civil rights of individuals with disabilities. Each day,
the disability community shared stories, both with
politicians and the American people, of discrimination
that excluded and segregated individuals with disabili-
ties from being full participants in society. As a result
746———Special Education, History of
of this consciousness raising, people-first language
became popularized. The use of people-first language
was a concrete way of demonstrating the ideology that
individuals with disabilities should be viewed as
people first, with their disability as secondary. Thus,
when referring to an individual with a disability, it is
proper etiquette to note the individual first and the dis-
ability second (e.g., a student who uses a wheelchair
instead of the wheelchair-bound student, a student
with a learning disability instead of the learning dis-
abled student, etc.).
Empowerment
ADA and people-first language greatly impacted the
reauthorization of IDEA in the 1990s. In the 1990
reauthorization, the word handicap was replaced with
disability, people-first language was used, and a transi-
tion component for students sixteen years and older
was added. Transition services provide a plan to ensure
successful transition into adulthood for students leav-
ing high school. This can include housing and services
in the community, employment opportunities through
job skills training, and college readiness through finan-
cial and counseling assistance.
The 1997 reauthorization had a drastic impact on
how students with disabilities were treated and edu-
cated in the public education system by affording more
rights and access to a free and appropriate education.
Prior to this reauthorization, services for individuals
with disabilities were still primarily provided through
a pull-out or resource-room model in which students
were provided services outside of the general educa-
tion classroom, either by being pulled from their gen-
eral education classroom or by attending a separate,
segregated class often called a resource room. These
separate services often used a different curriculum
with lower standards than that provided in the general
education setting.
As a result of the reauthorization of IDEA in 1997,
schools were mandated to provide services in the least
restrictive environment, and the model for special edu-
cation services began to change whereby schools were
shifting their primary mode of services from a segre-
gated model to an inclusionary model. Through an
inclusionary model, special education teachers enter
the general education classroom to provide services,
including consultation, collaboration, and co-teaching,
and assist the general education teacher in developing
modifications and accommodations of the curriculum
for students with special needs.
Also in the 1997 reauthorization, the age for transi-
tion services was lowered to fourteen to ensure appro-
priate planning for successful transition into adulthood;
the language of free and appropriate education was
added to signify the ideology of education as a right;
and nondiscriminatory assessment and inclusion in
state assessments were added to ratchet up accountabil-
ity of special education placement, services, and pro-
grams. As a result, the 1990s marked the beginning of
the era of accountability and empowerment as the con-
sciousness of the American people shifted with the use
of people-first language, education as a right ideology,
and the mandate for accountability.
The reauthorization of IDEA in 2004 continued to
move the agenda of accountability and empowerment
forward by emphasizing the implementation of a stan-
dards-based curriculum and scientifically based
instruction, ensuring and defining highly qualified
teachers, and mandating the use of the response to
instruction model to determine appropriate interven-
tions and referral to special education. Response to
instruction examines the parameters in teaching and
learning that affect how a student learns and uses data
to change instructional practices so that students with
disabilities can access content from the general educa-
tion curriculum. This approach serves to empower
students with disabilities by raising expectations and
outcomes for learning and positioning educators and
schools to be more accountable in doing so. There is
no longer a question as to whether accessing the gen-
eral education curriculum is appropriate, but rather a
critical examination of how we create interventions
and adaptations so that students with disabilities can
access this knowledge.
Barbara J. Dray
See also Disabilities and the Politics of Schooling; Disability
Studies; Special Education, Contemporary Issues
See Visual History Chapter 21, Students With Special Needs

Further Readings
Patton, J. R., Polloway, E. A., & Smith, T. E. C. (2000).
Educating students with mild mental retardation. Focus on
Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities, 15(2),
80–89.
Polloway, E. A., Smith, J. D., Patton, J. R., & Smith, T. E. C.
(1996). Historic changes in mental retardation and
developmental disabilities. Education and Training in
Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities,
31, 3–12.
Winzer, M. A. (1993). The history of special education: From
isolation to integration. Washington, DC: Gallaudet Press.
Yell, M. L., Rogers, D., & Rogers, E. L. (2006). The history
of the law and children with disabilities. In M. Yell (Ed.),
The law and special education (2nd ed.). Upper Saddle
River, NJ: Merrill Prentice Hall.
SPELMAN COLLEGE
Spelman College is a historically Black women’s
college in Atlanta, Georgia, that is now part of the
Atlanta University Center Consortium. Over the years,
Spelman has played a key role in training African
American women for leadership and preparing them
for graduate study. Spelman currently has about 2,100
students from forty-one states and fifteen foreign
countries. With a ranking of 75, it was the only
historically Black institution included in U.S. News &
World Report’s 2008 listing of the top 100 liberal arts
colleges in the United States. The college also has the
highest graduation rate among historically Black
institutions, and at 77 percent, its record surpasses the
graduation rate for Black students at a number of high-
ranking public and private institutions.
Spelman was established following the Civil War to
educate emancipated slaves. Two New England women,
Sophia B. Packard and Harriet E. Giles, founded Spelman
in 1881 not only to teach women and girls to read, write,
and do simple arithmetic, but also to prepare them to
serve as teachers, missionaries, and church workers.
Practical skills were also stressed as part of preparing
students to be good homemakers and mothers.
In 1882, after hearing a presentation by Packard and
Giles at Wilson Avenue Church in Cleveland, Ohio,
one of the church members, John D. Rockefeller,
became a lifelong contributor both to the school and to
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Spelman College———747
African American education in general. With addi-
tional support from the American Baptist Home
Mission Society and its women’s auxiliary, nine acres
of land and five buildings—former Union Army
barracks—were purchased. The financial support of
Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller, Sr., together with
other gifts ranging from $1 to $1,000, made it possible
to complete payment of the mortgage.
The school moved to its new location in February
1883, and Packard and Giles fought a proposal to merge
the female seminary with the Atlanta Baptist Seminary, a
school for males. Packard and Giles believed that their
female students would be better served by keeping the
schools separate. To do so, they had to raise enough
money to support separate schools, and they received
money from Baptists in the North and African American
Baptists in Georgia. The Rockefellers donated the
remaining amount needed, and in 1884, the school’s
name was changed to Spelman Seminary in honor of
Laura Spelman Rockefeller and her parents.
The curriculum expanded to include college
preparatory classes equivalent to high school. A nurse
training department opened in 1886, followed in 1891
by a missionary training department. A new building
was dedicated in 1918 to house the expanded home
economics program. Spelman Seminary established
the College Department in 1897, although most of the
college work was at nearby Morehouse College.
One of the most significant events in Spelman’s his-
tory occurred in 1924, when it changed from a semi-
nary to a full-fledged college intended to provide a
liberal arts education to its students. Under the leader-
ship of Florence Matilda Read, who served as president
from 1927 to 1953, the curriculum was expanded, with
college courses established in the humanities, fine arts,
social sciences, and natural sciences.
Albert E. Manley, the first Black and first male
president, succeeded Read in 1953, ending nearly a
half century of New England leadership. During his
tenure from 1953 to 1976, Spelman strengthened its
liberal arts program with the addition of non-Western
and ethnic studies courses. Several other new pro-
grams were implemented in the 1970s, including
freshman orientation and freshman studies, the health
careers program, the family planning program, and
cooperative programs with non-Black institutions.