IDEA: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Grace Singley
Education: Moravian University
EDUC 216: Early Childhood Education, Theories, Practices, & Family Partnerships
Professor Caroline Carty
September 23, 2021
There was once a time when students with disabilities did not get the help or attention they needed. That is until IDEA. IDEA stands for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This law ensures that eligible children with disabilities, ages 3-21, obtain a free public education that meets their needs. Whether that be special education or services related to that. IDEA was a law created in 1975 when President Gerald Ford signed into law the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142), now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). “Prior to IDEA, over 4 million children with disabilities were denied appropriate access to public education. Many children were denied entry into public school altogether, while others were placed in segregated classrooms, or in regular classrooms without adequate support for their special needs” (Katsiyannis, Yell, Bradley, 2001; Martin, Martin, Terman, 1996; U.S. Department of Education, 2010). There are 13 disabilities that fall under the eligibility of IDEA. They are (1) Autism, (2) Deaf-blindness, (3) Deafness, (4) Emotional disturbance, (5) Hearing impairment, (6) Intellectual disability, (7) Multiple disabilities, (8) Orthopedic impairment, (9) Other health impairment (includes ADHD), (10) Specific learning disability (includes dyslexia, dyscalculia, dysgraphia, and other learning differences), (11) Speech or language impairment, (12)Traumatic brain injury, and (13) Visual impairment, including blindness. The creation of this law led to the country’s commitment to protect and provide education to children with disabilities and ensure that they have the opportunities to “develop their talents, share their gifts, and contribute to their communities'' (IDEA, 2020).
There has been a plethora of advances in special education and education for children with disabilities since 1975. However, there have also been a few setbacks and factors that have made giving those children with disabilities opportunities a little more difficult. Special education is a
service provided to a large number of students who are eligible for Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. One factor that makes it difficult to provide for these specific children is the lack of qualified and certified teachers who want to teach special education. According to an article published by The School of Education Online Program, The Office of Special Education has data that shows that, “the national shortage for special education teachers is at 8 percent” (The School of Education Online Program, 2021). Another concern is technology. In today's society, technology has a huge impact on all types of education. The article also mentions how that 8 percent includes inadequate or uncertified teachers. It was shown that in the state of California, there were approximately 8,470 new special education teachers hired in the 2017 to 2018 school year. This number seeds great! However, only 3, 274 were fully credentialed. Although I do not have experience being a certified teacher yet, I do know what it means to be a great one. In my EDUC 216 class at Moravian University, I learned that being a teacher means being intentional and having purpose. You are expected to meet the needs of your students and help them grow and prosper not only academically but also as a person. As an educator this can be demanding and hard work. For a special educator this might be more difficult because they have to meet the needs of children who may struggle more than a child not receiving special education. Their expectations may be to go beyond what is expected from the teacher and that may be something that can turn away interest in teaching special education.
Another concern involves something very relevant to today’s society. That something is technology. Over the past months, technology in education has grown exponentially. Due to the spread of COVID-19, schools nationwide were forced to close in-person teaching and teach remotely by using technology. For children who have disabilities, the use of technology may
come as a struggle more than a student without disabilities. This being said, they may have not had the resources they need to succeed. In an article titled, ““Am I Doing Enough?" Special Educators' Experiences with Emergency Remote Teaching in Spring 2020,” written by Rachel K Shuck and Rachel Lambert, it mentions how “The shift to Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) presented particular challenges to special educators of students with significant support needs who often benefit from strong interpersonal connections, modeling, and the use of physical manipulatives” (Shuck, Lambert, 2020, p1). Not only were children at a loss of key components for their education but also for other aspects of development. Because Emergency Remote Teaching does not occur very often, I think that remote learning could possibly be integrated into IDEA in the future to live up to the commitment of ensuring that students with disabilities can get the education they need.
However, IDEA is not the only law that supports children with disabilities. There are about three laws that go hand in hand for students with disabilities in public schooling. The first being the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The second is the Section 504 Rehabilitation Act (504) and lastly is the Title II of The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). ADA is a more broad act that was put in place to provide civil rights protections to all individuals with disabilities in the US in many different aspects of life. Title II of the ADA prohibits discrimination by state and local governments, which includes public schools (ADA National Network). Section 504 is more limited, it provides civil rights protections to all individuals with disabilities in programs that receive federal funding, which includes most public schools (ADA National Network). These laws can be confusing due to their similarities. They overlap in who is covered under these laws, their eligibility and requirements as well as their overall definition of
disability. However, they all work together to provide Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) to students with disabilities. As a student who has received a 504 in my secondary education years, I can safely say that I had never had an issue with teachers or administration in adjusting my 504 or the use of my 504. Without my 504, I would not have been able to navigate through school as I did.
Many children greatly benefit from IDEA. One person in particular is a 16 year old boy named Aj Moncman. Aj is a 16 year old family friend of mine. He was born with Leber's Congenital Amaurosis LCA. This means that the middle of his retina does not work properly which causes total blindness. Because of his disability, he receives support from IDEA. I had the opportunity to talk to Aj and during that interview with Aj, he was asked if he ever felt like he did not receive the support from administration at his school in regards to his disability. He responded with “Southern Lehigh is a great school district where I have always gotten everything that I needed to succeed in the classroom” (A. Moncman, personal communication, September 21, 2021). He also expressed his gratitude to IDEA. “I definitely would not have all the services I do without IDEA. It pays for my braille note that the school buys for me, and it pays for all my textbooks. A braille math textbook can cost anywhere between $80 and $120,000” (A. Moncman, personal communication, September 21, 2021). Aside from Aj’s stacked school schedule where he takes classes like AP Psychology and AP Calculus, he is an active member of the marching band where he plays the drums ever so effortlessly and is a power-lifting champion where he competes in competitions across the state.
All in all, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has impacted the education world immensely in recent years. Without it, many children like Aj would not be able to get the proper schooling and education they need. According to Pew Research Center, “The nearly 7 million disabled students in the U.S. make up 14% of national public school enrollment, according to data from the National Center for Education Statistics. This group has grown 11% between 2000-01 (when there were 6.3 million students) and 2017-18, the most recent year for which data is available” (Katherine Schaeffer, 2020). Because these numbers are on the rise, it is acutely important that these resources be put to use and provided to those students with disabilities. In the article titled, “Maintenance of Effort Requirements: An Overview for Administrators,” written by Michelle Popham, Katherine Ingram Lawton, Antonis Katsiyannis, and Joseph Ryan, it mentions that “To ensure the adequacy of funding in special education, IDEA 1997 amendments and the IDEA 1999 regulations included the requirement of maintenance of effort (MOE) for local education agencies (LEAs). MOE stipulates that the LEA must continue to maintain the same effort of state and/or local funding for the education of children with disabilities as they did during the previous fiscal year” (Michelle Popham, Katherine Ingram Lawton, Antonis Katsiyannis,Joseph Ryan 2017 p.7). This is just another example of the benefits of IDEA. There is yet another layer of protection to ensure that these students that fall under IDEA are protected and that their education is properly provided to them with the resources that go hand-in-hand with their disabilities.
References
About idea. Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. (2020, November 24). Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://sites.ed.gov/idea/about-idea/
A. Moncman, personal communication, September 21, 2021
American Psychological Association. (n.d.). Individuals with disabilities education act (ACT). American Psychological Association. Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://www.apa.org/advocacy/education/idea.
Disability rights laws in public primary and secondary education: How. ADA National Network. (2021, September 21). Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://adata.org/factsheet/disability-rights-laws-public-primary-and-secondary-edu cation-how-do-they-relate
Popham, M., Lawton, K. I., Katsiyannis, A., & Ryan, J. (2017). Maintenance of Effort Requirements: An Overview for Administrators. Journal of Special Education Leadership, 30(2), 98–104.
Schaeffer, K. (2020, July 27). As schools shift to online learning amid Pandemic, Here's what we know about disabled students in the U.S. Pew Research Center. Retrieved September 22, 2021, from https://www.pewresearch.org/fact-tank/2020/04/23/as-schools-shift-to-online-learni ng-amid-pandemic-heres-what-we-know-about-disabled-students-in-the-u-s/#:~:tex t=1%20The%20nearly%207%20million,for%20which%20data%20is%20available.
Schuck, R. K., & Lambert, R. (2020). “Am I Doing Enough?” Special Educators’ Experiences with Emergency Remote Teaching in Spring 2020. Education Sciences, 10.
https://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?vid=23&sid=950a7dfa-b354-4cb5-bced-20 4895532cb9%40pdc-v-sessmgr03&bdata=JnNpdGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZSZzY29wZ T1zaXRl#AN=EJ1150381&db=eric
Why is there a special education teacher shortage? Special Education Teacher Shortage: Driving Factors | American University. (n.d.). Retrieved September 21, 2021, from https://soeonline.american.edu/blog/special-education-teacher-shortage.