IDEA ESSAY 1

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Tatum Ronke

Dakota State University

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Abstract
This paper will discuss and explain the six points or principles of the Individuals with

Disabilities Education Improvement Act, otherwise known as the IDEA principles. It will take

you through the history of IDEA and how it has shaped todays thinking and perspective of

society. The six principles of IDEA are, zero reject, nondiscriminatory evaluation, free

appropriate public education, least restrictive environment, procedural safeguards, and parent

participation and shared decision-making.

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Individuals with Disabilities Education

Throughout history, children with disabilities have been looked at differently. Society is a

hard thing to change but some steps taken in the right direction has started to reverse the eye on

disabilities. Before anyone really knew how to describe or understand these disabilities, they

would try to find someone to blame or a not so ideal solution to the problems. In 1975, a

change occurred that would shape the Special Education world.

In 1975, a law was passed that started a change in society on the views of how to help

children with disabilities. The law was called the All Handicapped Childrens Act. This act

required that all public schools accepting federal funds to provide equal access to education and

one free meal a day for children with physical and mental disabilities. Along with that, the

schools had to create educational plans with parent input of the students that had been evaluated.

This act led to another act in 1990, this was basically a reformed version of the 1975 Act.

They named it the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This was the first form of

IDEA. This lead to the most recent reauthorization of IDEA, the new name is The Individuals

with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. IDEA exerts a profound influence on what takes

place in every school building in the country and has changed the roles and responsibilities of

general and special educators, school administrators, parents, and students with disabilities in the

educational process.

The law, basically, shows societys concerns about having people with disabilities treated

the same as any other person and the same rights and privileges that they enjoy. IDEA has six

major principles. Most of these principles have remained unchanged since the first law in 1975.

Each principle plays a huge role in the IDEA image of the school systems and the society.
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Zero Reject, the first principle of IDEA means that schools must educate all children with

disabilities. No child with disabilities may be excluded from a free public education, regardless

of the mature of severity of the disability. In the principle it also states that between the ages of

six and seventeen the school must provide special education and if they provide services to ages

of three to five and eighteen to twenty-one, then they must also do so for the children with

disabilities. This just goes to show that this act wants each person with disabilities to be treated

as equally as people without disabilities.

When schools are evaluating the students for special education, they must use the second

principle of IDEA. Nondiscriminatory evaluation is when the school uses nonbiased,

multifactorial methods of evaluation to determine whether a child has a disability and, if so

whether the child needs special instructions to benefit from education. Therefore, the school must

evaluate a student for who the student is and cannot be opposed to the student because they are

different. An example of a nonbiased method of evaluation would be testing the student in their

native language. The determination of a students placement cannot be determined by just a

single test. This is giving the student the ability to show what they excel in and what they do not.

Many different tests can also show that the student may not understand a certain way of doing a

task but they do in another way.

Through the zero reject principle, every school must educate all children with disabilities,

they must also do it for free. That is when the third principle comes into play. All children with

disabilities, regardless of what type or severity of their disability, shall receive a Free Appropriate

Public Education (FAPE), included in this principle the book talks about the formation of an

Individualized Education Plan or IEP. An IEP is a plan that is written, very specifically, for the

student. It lays out exactly what special education the student needs and the related services that
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go along with the special education; it covers exactly how the parents, teachers, and anyone else

involved, is going to achieve the goals they have set.

An IEP helps to guide the student to succeed in certain classes or just everyday tasks. A

group of educators that will be fulfilling the duties on the IEP writes the IEP. When writing this

they must say exactly what they want to accomplish. Keeping data in this process is very

important and time consuming. It is in the interest of the student that the educators follow the

IEP and do not brush it off and do their own thing.

Even though a student may have an IEP, whether it be for a learning disability or autism,

we want that student to be as what we would say normal. We do this with the fourth principle

of IDEA. IDEA requires schools to educate students with disabilities without disabilities to the

maximum extent appropriate and that students with disabilities be removed to separate classes or

schools only when the nature severity of their disability is such that they cannot receive an

appropriate education in a general education classroom with supplementary aids and services.

This is refereed to as placing them in a Least Restrictive Environment (LRE). An LRE can be a

separate classroom, special rooms, or even special schools. Placing students is important and

should be done to help best benefit the student.

Schools must follow an extensive set of procedures to safeguard and protect the rights

and interests of children with disabilities and their parents. This brings us to the fifth principle of

IDEA. It is very important to make sure that the student is protected and all information is kept

confidential. This is important in every aspect, as we are always striving to get these students as

equal opportunities as any other student.

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When there is a disagreement on the identification, evaluation, placement, or provision of

a FAPE and related services for the child, the parents may request a due process hearing.

Mediation is also an option when a problem arises. This is why it is very important to follow a

students IEP and to communicate with the students parents. Everyone just truly wants the best

for the student so we try to keep everything as they are supposed to be.

This leads us to the final principle of IDEA. The sixth principle is Parent Participation

and Shared Decision Making. This says that schools must be working with the parents and

students with disabilities in the planning and implementing of special education and related

services. If the parent is not on board, it can cause conflict. To get away from conflict, whatever

the parent inputs or wishes for their child must be taken into consideration when writing and

implementing an IEP. If one does not have parental consent than none of the opportunities

brought about in by IDEA would be possible.

When a child is given the opportunity to succeed, the things that they can accomplish is

truly amazing. That is truly, what IDEA is doing for children. IDEA is giving children with

disabilities a chance at the most prosperous life as they can, creating every opportunity for them,

as they do for the child without disabilities. Some of those opportunities would be special

education services for preschoolers, early intervention for infants and toddlers, assistive

technology, scientifically based instruction, and universal design for learning. IDEA ideally has

taken the everyday student life and tried to make it as possible for the students with disabilities to

attend and achieve as every other students.

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Bibliography