IDEA Essay
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IDEA ESSAY
By: Abbie Wilke
APRIL 8, 2015
SPED 100
Steinhoff-Muller
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Abstract
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was passed in 1975. This act is often
abbreviated as IDEA. This act has four main purposes and six major principles. The six
principles are zero reject, nondiscriminatory evaluation, free appropriate education, least
restrictive environment, procedural safeguards, and parent participation and shared decision
making. These purposes and principles help to put children with disabilities in the American
education system and in the general education classroom. IDEA also has benefits for teachers in
causing the need for more education and experience. Children with disabilities have benefited in
many ways from IDEA. Children with disabilities are now allowed to be in the general education
classroom and to have access to resources to help better cope with the disability.
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The Education for All Handicapped Children Act was passed by Congress in 1975. This
act entirely changed education in America. This act was changed five times. In 1990, the
legislation was renamed to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. This act is often
referred to as IDEA. The law was renamed again in 2004 to the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Improvement Act. IDEA has four purposes and six major principles.
According to the book, Exceptional Children, the first purpose of the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is “to ensure that all children with disabilities have available
to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related
services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education,
employment, and independent” (p. 16). IDEA is to also ensure that the rights of children with
disabilities and parents of those children are protected and to assist States, localities, educational
service agencies, and Federal agencies to provide for the education of all children with
disabilities. This purpose helps the American education system in the fact that it allows children
with disabilities to enter the education organization. For teachers, this purpose will cause them to
have to have background in how to teach children with disabilities. For children with disabilities,
being in an appropriate classroom and receiving an education is beneficial on so many levels.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is also “to assist States in the
implementation of a statewide, comprehensive, coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency
system of early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families”
(Heward p. 16). This purpose is to help States create programs to help detect and support
children with disabilities before the children reach school. For the American education
organization, having early detection helps parents and children better handle the disorder. For
teachers, when a child with a disability has early intervention, it allows the teacher to integrate
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the child in the classroom much more smoothly. For a child with a disability, having early
detection can help them adjust sooner.
The third purpose of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), according
to Exceptional Children, is to ensure that educators and parents have the necessary tools to
improve educational results for children with disabilities by supporting system improvement
activities; coordinated research and personnel preparation; coordinated technical assistance,
dissemination, and support; and technology development and media services (p. 16). For the
American education organization, having parents to have access to resources and tools to make
school easier for the child will ultimately benefit the child. For teachers, having parents involved
in a child’s education helps the child in the classroom setting. Individuals with disabilities who
have access to these resources allows them to cope with their disability and learning in a smooth
manner.
The last purpose of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, according to Heward,
is to assess, and ensure the effectiveness of, efforts to educate children with disabilities (p. 16).
This purpose is meant to make sure that children are getting educating effectively and are
actually learning. This purpose also helps evaluate teachers to see if anything can be done to
change teaching methods to better help children with disabilities in the classroom.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), has six main principles: zero
reject, nondiscriminatory evaluation, free appropriate public education, least restrictive
environment, procedural safeguards, and parent participation and shared decision making. These
principles fall under the many rules and regulations defining how IDEA operates. These
principles have basically remained unchanged since 1975.
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The first principle of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), according
to Exceptional Children, is the zero reject principle. This principle says that schools must
educate all children and that no child can be excluded from a free public education no matter the
nature or how severe the disability. It is required that special education be provided to children
with disabilities between the ages of six and seventeen. If a state provides education for children
without disabilities for children aged three to five or eighteen to twenty-one, then the state must
provide education for children with disabilities in those age groups. IDEA has a requirement
called child find system. This system requires each state’s education agency to be responsible for
locating, identifying, and evaluating all children, from birth to age twenty-one, residing in the
state disabilities or who are suspected of having disabilities (p. 17). This helps every child with a
disability in the fact that each child is getting appropriate education just like children who do not
have disabilities. Teaching children with disabilities requires a range of background and can
cause teachers to become more educated and more beneficial in the classroom,
Nondiscriminatory evaluation, according to Heward, is the second principle in the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This principle states that schools must use
nonbiased, multifactored methods of evaluation when determining if a child has a disability and
if the child has a disability whether the child needs specially designed instruction to benefit from
education. The provision of protection in evaluation procedures require testing and evaluation to
be nondiscriminatory on the basis of race, culture or native language. Tests needs to be
administered in the child’s native language and placement cannot be based on just an individual
test score (p. 17). Equal treatment is important in the American education system. Teachers may
be required to teach another language, which causes teachers to possibly need more education.
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The third principle listed in Exceptional Children, for the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act (IDEA) is free appropriate public education. This principle says that all children
with disabilities, no matter the severity, shall receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE).
The education is provided at public expense. An individualized education program (IEP) must be
developed and implemented to meet the unique needs of each individual with a disability. An
IEP specifies the child’s present levels of performance, identifies measurable annual goals, and
describes the specific special education and related services that will be provided to help the
child attain those goals and benefit from education. IDEA also requires that schools provide any
related services and assistive technology that a child with a disability may need to access and
benefit from special education (p. 18). This principle has impacted the American education
system in the fact that this principle as allowed more children with disabilities to attend school
and receive an education. This principle causes educators to need to have a background or a
knowledge in how to teach children with any disability. This principle affects the lives of the
individuals with disabilities in the fact that those individuals now get to receive a free and
appropriate education.
Referring to Heward, the fourth principle of the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA) is least restrictive environment. This principle basically states that schools will
educate students with disabilities alongside students without disabilities to the maximum extent
appropriate for students with disabilities. Students should be removed and be put in separate
classrooms or schools if the child with disabilities are severe enough that the child cannot receive
an appropriate education in the general education classroom (p. 18). This principles allows for
children to be placed in the most appropriate and safe education setting in the American
education system. Having children in the appropriate and least restrictive environment will allow
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children to get the most out of school. Teaching children in their appropriate and least restrictive
environment allows teachers to see more growth in the students in their classroom.
According to Exceptional Children, procedural safeguards is the fifth principle in the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This principle states that schools must
follow an extensive set of procedures to safeguard and protect the rights and interests of children
with disabilities and their parents. Parental consent is needed for initial and all other evaluations,
placements and testing. Schools must remain confidentiality of all records. If parents disagree
with a result, the parent can go and get an independent evaluation at public expense. If a
disagreement occurs, parents may request a due process hearing in which the state must
reimburse the family’s attorneys’ fees (p. 19). Having procedural safeguards in the American
education system allows for families to be protected from wrong doing of their child. Teaching
and having to deal with procedural safeguards can cause a little extra work but it can protect
children with disabilities from having children without disability from bullying.
The last principle listed by Heward for the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is
parental participation and shared decision making. This principle states that schools must
communicate with parents and must take parents’ (and the student’s) wishes about education,
IEP goals, related service needs, and placement decisions into account (p. 20). Having parents
involved is beneficial to the education system, because parents give different viewpoints that
educators might not see. Teachers enjoy having parents involved in the student’s education
because it allows the students to benefit more from their education.
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was approved in 1975 and its
overall purpose is to have children with disabilities receive an appropriate education in the most
least restrictive environment. The four main purposes and the six main principles have changed
IDEA Essay
the American education system in a good way. The IDEA has allowed for children with
disabilities to receive an education, give parent better tools to help their child balance the
disability with academics, and IDEA also helps teachers in causing them to need more
knowledge in special education and how to better teach children with disabilities. IDEA has
allowed children with disabilities to experience education in way never thought possible.
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References
Heward, W. L. (2013). Exceptional Children: Pearson New International Edition An
Introduction to Special Education. (10th ed., international ed.). Harlow: Pearson.