IDEA: Individuals with Diabilities Education Act

IDEA stands for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and it is the law that gives rights to students with disabilities ages preschool-21 years old. It is important that you, as parents, teachers, etc., know about IDEA because it says what legally should/ should not and can/cannot be done for students with disabilities. Many of the sections of IDEA, such as the timeline, have or will be talked about on this blog but I wanted to provide you with some more specifics and some places you can read more about it.

IDEA was originally the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) and was made into law in 1975. It was renamed IDEA in 1990. It was amended, or changed, in 1991, 1997, and 2004. Most recently, Obama reauthorized IDEA in 2009 with $12.2 million from the stimulus package.

In IDEA some very important provisions, or requirements, are laid out.
• Eligibility for services
• The IEP, or Individualized Education Plan
• FAPE, Free Appropriate Public Education
• LRE, Least Restrictive Environment
• Child find
• Procedural safeguards
• Disciplinary action
• Services related to the disability

I don’t want to overwhelm anyone with a massive post so I’m going to break each of these areas into separate posts in order to provide some relevant details and criticisms. That way, we can discuss how we see each being played out in our classrooms or in our child’s classroom.

If you’re really interested in the law, you can visit http://idea.ed.gov/ for the official website or visit here for the ADA summary of the Act. Finally, the National Dissemination Center for Children with Disabilities, NICHCY, has very helpful resources here.