Individuals with Disabilities Education Act
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is a passed law that ensures that a free and the right public education is given to those individuals with disabilities in the whole nation (Epler, 2017). The Act also ensures that special education is provided to those individuals. This Act also governs how those individuals and children with disabilities are educated through special education. It also ensures that those children receive exceptional care as early as possible, especially under two. Those children who are from three years to twenty-one years, this Act provides that they receive the proper special education. This Act also ensures that the state grants the appropriate amount of money to agencies that aid in the special knowledge of the disabled children. It also provides that more money is given to research firms to carry out more research that will make the children with disabilities receive the appropriate care.
It all started in 1975 when Congress passed legislation that allowed children with disabilities to have access to special education. It was initially known as the Education of the All Handicapped Children Act. It advocated for equal access to the educational materials of all the children and individuals who had disabilities (Epler, 2017).
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was formed to serve significant purposes in the nation. This Act is to advocate for free education to all the children and individuals who had disabilities. It also ensures that the rights and the freedom of those children who are disabled are well protected. It also ensures that the parents’ rights and the guardians of those children with disabilities are protected without any compromise.
It also assists educational agencies and any other bodies that provide special education in providing those services. It also ensures that those agencies which take part in special education receive the proper funds that will enable them to provide special education effectively. The last purpose of IDEA is to ensure appropriate special education is provided to the disabled children. It does this by assessing the children with disabilities to affirm that they have received the required education. It does this to ensure that every disabled child is stable enough and can fit into the rest of the world, just like any other child.
IDEA is mainly into four primary partitions. The first one, part A is the general provisions. The general provisions are simply the normal provision of resources to the individuals and disabled children.
The second part of this Act is the part B, which specifically applies to those children who are from as low as three years to twenty-one years. This part of the IDEA ensures that these children in that age bracket receive the required services to help them acquire the right skills for their development. This part also ensures that the guardians and the parents to these children receive the appropriate skills to handle them since they tend to spend more time with them. This is issued under a program called the individual education program. This part of the Act also requires special education services in an environment that is more free and interactive. The place where the special education is provided should not, in any case, be restrictive. The location of education should provide an atmosphere that allows the parents of those children’s active involvement and the participation of the whole community at large.
The third part of that Act is the part C. this part of the Act applies explicitly to the toddlers and infants with disabilities. This part ensures that any child born with a disability receives early intervention to grow in a required way. This applies to all the children who are two years and below and the families for which they belong (Zeanah, 2018). This is done under a program that is called the federal grant program. It ensures that these children receive their care in their natural environment. This is very important for their early development (Zeanah, 2018).
The last part of the Act is the Part D, which mainly discusses the main activities that the national government is supposed to carry out to improve the education system of those children and individuals who are disabled. This last part also ensures that proper research is carried out to ensure that the disabled children receive the required skills that will enable them to be appropriate coordination with the rest of the world. This will allow them not to feel out of place from the rest of the world.
IDEA has some main provision guidelines that every state and education agencies must adhere to when administering special education to children and the individuals who have disabilities. The first provision is the offering of free education. All the children and individuals who are disabled must receive free education services. They should not be charged in any way for education services. These education services are supposed to be provided at the public’s expense, under the supervision of the people and without any fees. The education must also meet the minimum requirements that have been set by the educational agency, failure to which that particular school should not offer special education. The free knowledge must be applied to all the learning levels, ranging from preschool, secondary school to the institutions of higher learning. The learning should also be provided in line with the individual education program (Matson, 2019).
The second provision is parental rights and due process. All the special children and also the parents and guardians of the special children have the right to be informed before their children are evaluated and placed in special education programs. The disabled children and their parents or guardians also have the right to attend a hearing if they disagree with what the school is saying about their children attending the special education services. In case the parents of that child are unknown, then somebody has to act on behalf of the child.
The third provision is that disabled children should be educated in a less restrictive area. According to the law, disabled children are supposed to be educated with those who are normal. A disabled child should only be removed from the standard education system if the child is not being benefited even with the learning aids’ help.
Another provision is that a proper definition is to be made of who is the child with a disability. This is a vital part of the law since it determines eligibility for special education services. According to IDEA, a child with a disability should have some sought of mental retardation, difficulty in hearing or even deafness, speech and language impairment, visual impairment or blindness, an emotional disturbance that is very serious, orthopedic impairment, brain injury, autism spectrum disorder or any other form of disability. When a child exhibits the above signs, the child is eligible for special education services.
Another provision is the issuance of evaluation that is not discriminatory. The evaluation procedure is defined in the law. A child or individual who is suspected of any disability should be assessed in all areas. A variety of instruments must be used to evaluate the student of their disabilities so that the right decision is arrived at to determine the disability of the child. The evaluation must not be biased towards the culture of the individual, race, or the background of the child or the individual.
Another provision is the individual education program. There are rules which have been put in place that govern the personal education program. Individualized education plans are always written for each student under the special education program. They include the goals of the student, both the short term and the long term goals. They also have the objectives of the student.
Another provision is related services. IDEA demands that associated services should be provided to individuals with disabilities. The related services include the transportation of these individuals, corrective measures, and any other services that support children with disabilities. Other benefits include speech pathology, interpretation of speech, audiology services, psychology services, and physical therapy.
Another provision is the early intervening services. IDEA demands that the state should allocate funds to early intervening programs. The funds are supposed to assist those students who are not currently qualified for the particular education program. The funds are about 15% of the federal funds.
Another provision is evidenced-based practices. It is a requirement that all the interventions, academic and institutional, must be supported by research. The last condition is confidentiality. The information regarding students with disabilities must be adequately safeguarded.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1974 mainly protects the rights of people who are handicaps. It not only protects the rights of the individuals who have visible disabilities but also the rights of those individuals whose disabilities may not be apparent (Grenier,2017).
Therefore, IDEA ensures that section 504 is enforced on all the programs and the activities that receive their finances. This is to ensure that all the finances given to the institutions are correctly used. IDEA also ensures that these kinds of the individuals are not left out since some of them are limited to perform certain tasks and therefore they need help just as much as the other individuals who are challenged.
Before the coming of IDEA and the enforcement of section 504, children with disabilities were always segregated in lonely places and left with no one to attend to them. These children never went to school to get the proper education. This means that more than one million children did not have access to public education. To make matters worse, some states did not allow disabled people to attend schools and interact with the children who had no disabilities.
Later on, when the special schools were opened, they were more expensive than regular schools. Therefore, it was tough for these children to attend the schools since their parents could not afford the school fees. After these incidents, the IDEA came into action to fight for the free education of the children who were disabled. IDEA opened opportunities for these children to access to free public education just like any other child. The disabled children who went through special education schools are twice more likely to be employed than those who went to a regular school. This portrays the real impact of the IDEA. Therefore, the coming up of the Individual with Disability Act was of much importance, and it changed the lives of very many students. More than one million students were able to have access to public education.
Ronald Yeskey was charged for a crime in Pennsylvania. He was sentenced to jail to serve between eighteen to thirty-six months in prison. According to the judge, Yeskey was to be placed under a motivational boot camp that would be eligible for release in six months. He was denied entry into the boot camp because he had hypertension before. Yeskey later sued the Pennsylvania department of corrections and all the officers in charge. He alleged that his denial of the boot camp was due to discrimination based on his disability.
The court of the district dismissed Yeskey’s allegation, and it said that the law of the disabilities does not apply to the inmates. The case was appealed, and the court of appeals reversed the ruling of the court of the district. The supreme court later ruled that the law regarding the people with disabilities also covers the state prisons and the inmates. Therefore, this decision by the court advanced the laws regarding those who have any disabilities.
Another case is that of Sidney Abbot and Dr. Bragdon. Abbot went to Dr. Bragdon who was a dentist. This happened in the year 1994. Abbot had been infected with HIV/AIDS for a long time but she had not experienced any kind of serious symptoms. Abbot disclosed that she was positive in the patient registration forms. Dr. Bragdon carried out an examination on Abbot and he found out that Abbot had a cavity. Dr. Bragdon told Mrs. Abbot that he cannot treat since she was HIV positive. Mrs. Abbot declined this and she decided to sue the doctor for refusing to help due to her disability. They both appeared before the court and the district court ruled in favor of Mrs. Abbot. The court ruled that HIV was disability. The case was later appealed to the supreme court since the doctor was not in agreement with the ruling of the district court. The supreme also ruled in favor of Mrs. Abbot. According to the supreme court, Mrs. Abbot was discriminated based on her disability which was HIV. Therefore, this ruling also made an advancement to the rights of the individuals who have disabilities.
References
Epler, P. (2017). Instructions strategies in general education and putting the individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) into practice. IGI Global.
Publications, C. (2020). The rights of Persons with Disabilities Act, 2016. Current Publications.
Grenier, M., & Lieberman, L. J. (2017). Physical education for children with moderate to severe disabilities. Human Kinetics.
Zeanah, C. H. (2018). Handbook of infant mental health (4th ed.). Guilford Publications.
Matson, J. L. (2019). Handbook of intellectual disabilities: integrating theory, research, and practice. Springer Nature.