The Rise of Inclusive Approaches and Laws

Progressive Reform: 1920s-1970s

While the 1800s represented a time of curiosity in understanding people with disabilities, the 1900s marked a time of progressive reform and advocacy, leading to drastic changes in the laws representing people with disabilities, as well as the public’s overall perception of disabilities. Shortly after the first special education class in the 1890s, educators continued changing their practices in the 1900s to better support students with disabilities. From Elizabeth Farrell to the rise of parent advocacy groups, change was happening that would positively impact students with disabilities for generations to come.

Changes in Educational Approaches

During this period, educators, including pioneer Elizabeth Farrell (1870-1932), changed their educational approaches to better suit how students with disabilities learn. Based on the work of her colleagues Howe and Séguin, Farrell’s foundational beliefs sought to address any educational difficulties of students with the aim of returning them to their general education classroom to learn alongside their peers. Farrell did not want to separate the students with disabilities by program, facility, or school. This belief was a precursor to the “separate but equal” consciousness brought forward by the landmark racial segregation law case, Brown v. Board of Education (1954), discussed later in this chapter.

Farrell also worked to identify children with disabilities using multiple assessment tools rather than solely intelligence testing. A study from Great Britain to identify and educate people with disabilities informed Farrell’s approach.Through her work, she linked the field of psychology to special education. Many refer to Elizabeth Farrell as the “mother of special education” (Kode, 2017).

Students from Farrell’s courses formed the International Council for the Education of Exceptional Children – now known as the Council for Exceptional Children –  as a way for these students to network and support each other. At the first meeting, on August 10, 1922, the council elected Elizabeth Farrell as president (Kode, 2017). Farrell may have been disappointed by the slow progress toward her goal of full integration of students with disabilities learning alongside their typically developing peers, as 100 years later, we have yet to universally achieve her goal.

The Rise of Parent Advocacy Groups

By 1933, as parents of children with disabilities advocated for better educational opportunities (Pardini, 2017), parent advocacy groups became more prevalent. Scientists, such as Goddard, witnessed the positive impact of education on people previously identified as feeble-minded. This notable realization in the scientific community helped change the idea of segregation through institutionalization (Parallels in Time: A history of developmental disabilities, 2022)

The Disability Rights Movement

Brown v. Board of Education

In 1954, the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case reached the Supreme Court, which found racial segregation in schools unconstitutional. As a result, schools could no longer separate students on the basis of race. The ruling set the stage for all people to be afforded the right to public education regardless of their race, then considered a binary system with people counted as either black or white. Advocates applied this landmark ruling to develop the case for educating students with disabilities in the same classrooms as their peers without disabilities.

While the Brown vs. Board of Education bill moved through the courts, parent advocacy groups continued to seek rights for their children with disabilities and in 1953 formed the National Association of Retarded Citizens (NARC). The parents who founded NARC wanted more than just the choice to send their children with disabilities to institutions: They wanted them to have fulfilling lives as members of society. In 2019, NARC rebranded and changed its name to Arc, which does not stand for anything. Despite the name change, this group still advocates for people with disabilities to lead full lives.

The Impact of Social Movements on Disability Rights

The 1960s abounded in social movements, with frequent protests, sit-ins, and marches. Common theme included equal treatment for all, the breakdown of barriers to lives and jobs, and parents’ continual advocacy for their children to receive necessary services. Samuel Kirk persuaded Congress to fund training for teachers to be experts in helping children with special education needs.

The Formation of the Special Olympics

In 1968, Eunice Kennedy Shriver (1921-2009), President John F. Kennedy’s sister, founded the first Special Olympics in Chicago (Special Olympics). Kennedy Shriver saw the difference physical activity could make for children with disabilities, both for their physical and mental health. What started as a summer camp for children with disabilities at Shriver’s home grew into the Special Olympics. In the process of developing the Special Olympics, the Kennedy Foundation pushed for legislation to develop several initiatives for people with disabilities. Kennedy Shriver’s sister Rosemary, a person with intellectual disabilities that she experienced her entire life, may have motivated Kennedy Shriver to act on behalf of children with disabilities..

Recent Advocacy: 1970s-Present Day

The social movements of the 1960s helped pave the way for the advances that occurred in the 1970s and beyond by providing the much-needed momentum for meaningful change to happen. However, even in the 1970s, people with disabilities were still institutionalized and oftentimes were not treated with the respect, dignity, or care that others would have received.

Silenced Voices of the Institutionalized

People were becoming more aware of the educational and institutional experiences of people with disabilities and, with this, aware of the ways in which the laws did not protect their rights. As awareness became widespread, so too did advocacy.

Noting the mislabeling of many Black students as learning disabled, in 1975 teacher and advocate Marva Collins started the Westside Preparatory School in second floor of her home.  Her first students included her own children and other neighborhood children and students with learning disabilities. By the end of the first year, all her students scored five grades higher than their grade level on standardized tests. She became known as a teacher of the unteachable. President Ronald Reagan offered her the post of secretary of education, which she turned down to continue developing her Westside Preparatory School (Biondi, 2018).

It is no coincidence that the 1970s experienced an influx of new legislation advocacy on behalf of children with disabilities.

Changes in Law

1970s-1990s

Moving forward, a noticeable shift in attitude regarding the perceptions and treatment of people with disabilities in society occurred. Part of this shift resulted from greater awareness about the educational and institutional experiences of people with disabilities, and other part from new legislation that opened more doors to include people with disabilities.

The early laws often required revisions and updates over time. For example,   Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) changed in 1990 to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

While the 1960s and 1970s brought awareness to people with disabilities and the challenges they faced, work still remained. As court cases persisted, the climate of special education in public schools continued to drastically change, and a significant number of laws passed. One of the most impactful laws, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 was the first act to acknowledge the civil rights of people with disabilities. It sought to prevent discrimination in public settings. Section 504 of the act ensures that all students receive Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). This foundational act informed the disabilities laws that followed.

As parents and advocates noticed the increase in disability legislation, they continued to pursue equal rights for children with disabilities. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) of 1975 gave every child the right to an education, included the parents’ right for involvement in their children’s education, and resulted in the introduction of Individualized Educational Programs (IEPs) for students who needed them. Parents’ continual participation in the education of children with disabilities brought additional changes.

Transformation of Laws Over Time

In March 1990, a group of disability rights activists arrived at the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C., with the goal to  achieve rights for Americans with disabilities, and in many ways, they succeeded.

Fueled by their desire for equal rights, the activists got out of  their wheelchairs and crawled up the 78 stone steps of the capitol building, a building that was inaccessible to wheelchairs at that time. Referred  to as the Capitol Crawl, the event spurred the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) in July 1990 and significantly demonstrated the willingness of people with disabilities to unite for a common cause. Their advocacy does not stop there, as 30 years after this historical event, Jennifer Keelan-Chaffins (referenced in the video below) shared current issues with the ADA.

The Americans with Disabilities Act built on the ideas in the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which prohibits discrimination based on disability in any federally funded program or activity. Going a step further, the ADA guarantees equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in employment, access to public spaces and transportation, state and local government services, and telecommunications. The ADA is arguably the most significant federal law ensuring equal civil rights to people with disabilities. To promote equity and counter past discriminatory practices, the ADA required businesses and governments to proactively offer equal opportunities to people with disabilities (National Council on Disability, 2004). While most ADA provisions were in place, the law applied those provisions to the private sector as well as the government.

In June 1990, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA) amendments became law, and the EAHCA changed  to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The law added transportation services and assistive technology to the definition of special education services and required inclusion of those services in students’ IEPs. The amendments also added rehabilitation counseling and social work services as related services. The IDEA extended services and rights to comprehensively include children with autism and traumatic brain injury. Although IDEA offered more improvements in the rights of people with disabilities, it did not address all their needs.

The continued refinement of what constitutes appropriate placement of students with disabilities came with the Sacramento City School District v. Rachel H court case (1994). This case underscored the issue with the IDEA’s least restrictive environment (LRE) mandate. Part of a student’s Individualized Educational Program, LREs determine how much or how little a student is integrated into the general education classroom.

This case was important because it made it clear that there needed to be clear criteria when deciding the proper placement for a student with disabilities. The criteria includes:

1. “[T]he steps the school district has taken to accommodate the child in a regular classroom;
2. [W]hether the child will receive an educational benefit from regular education;
3. [T]he child’s overall educational experience in regular education; and
4. [T]he effect the disabled child’s presence has on the regular classroom” (Sacramento City School District v. Rachel H).

Guess the Decade

2000s-Present

In 2002, the U.S. Congress updated Elementary and Secondary Education Act, passing No Child Left Behind (NCLB). The guiding law for K-12 general education from 2002 to 2015, No Child Left Behind aimed to reform schools and produce new results. The law’s focus on accountability through the use of testing data proved controversial because the law seemed to penalize schools that could not meet the target goals. Urban schools experienced issues of equity, with historic academic, professional, financial, and instructional disparities. Insufficient funding to urban and rural schools negatively impacted minorities and families with low socioeconomic status who relied on the education provided due to the negative effects of NCLB (Fusarelli, 2004).

Teachers began to  modify their teaching to teach to the test, omitting cultural components and other learning opportunities to instead meet prescribed test scores. Those who opposed NCLB stressed the stifling of teacher creativity and student learning. Students with disabilities faced additional challenges: Standardized testing is antithetical to special education goals, as individualized instruction does not coincide with a one-size-fits-all approach. NCLB tests were considered ‘too densely written, too long in duration, and too difficult in terms of readability’ and required a level of understanding that required indiscriminate administration, even with accommodations such as extra time and extra breaks’ (Meek, 2006). NCLB did not improve scores or narrow achievement gaps.

In 2015, President Barack Obama signed the Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) into law, which replaced No Child Left Behind. There are many differences between the NCLB and ESSA, One main difference involves a change in each state’s accountability. Instead of student test scores as the measure for states, legally states must provide the public with a State Report Card reflective of its schools, which includes reading and math test scores, English-language proficiency test scores, high school graduation rates, and a state-chosen academic measure for elementary and middle schools. Other measurements consider school quality through factors such as kindergarten readiness, access to and completion of advanced coursework, college readiness, school climate and safety, and chronic absenteeism. States are required to assess more weight to the academic factors of the law. Instead of penalizing schools for low test scores, struggling schools will receive more funding and develop an improvement plan.

For special educators, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has served as the regulating document for special education since its first passage in 1990 and continues to be amended and revised as needed. In 2004, the IDEA was reauthorized and aligned with No Child Left Behind. At this time, it was also renamed to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act. Highlights of this change include early intervention services, greater accountability, and improved educational outcomes. It also raised standards for instructors who teach special education classes.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rgwstMsPvd4

Guaranteed by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) is a right for all students to an education. What is deemed appropriate depends on the student, though, and how to determine what is appropriate has been challenged in recent years.

The case of Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District RE-1 (2017) set a landmark. Endrew F, a student with autism, was receiving his education with the assistance of an Individual Education Program (IEP). After a couple of years on the same IEP, his parents noticed his academic progress stagnated and attributed this to his unchanged IEP. His parents disagreed with the plan in Endrew’s IEP and placed their child in a private school where he could learn. The problem with this case was that Endrew was receiving “de minimus” educational benefits rather than an education that led to progress and development. The Court of Appeals determined that the instructional services provided to children with disabilities must be drafted to confer “some educational benefit,” as the minimum was no longer sufficient. In other words, the student needs to show progress.

Of course, in 2020, Coronavirus pandemic impacted many students with learning disabilities. The pandemic brought light to the many issues related to education, specifically the shortage of licensed and skilled teachers. Additionally, the pandemic interfered with federal law through the loss of services. View this family’s plight with two children diagnosed with autism during the pandemic.

Times Have Changed

Conclusion

Over the decades, significant progress has been made to support students with learning disabilities. This progress could not have been made without people like Geraldo Rivera or Eunice Kennedy Shriver, who used their platforms to bring awareness to the challenges and living conditions of people with disabilities, and advocates, who used their influence to persuade lawmakers to create laws that are more inclusive of people with disabilities. These efforts combined helped to create the disability laws that we have come to celebrate today.

The Rise of Inclusive Approaches and Laws

References

Biondi, C. (2018). Marva Collins, Her Method, and Her “Philosophy for Living.” The Objective Standard.

Farrell, E. (1925). What New York City Does for Its Problem Children. Ungraded. The Ungraded Teachers Association of New York City.

Fusarelli, L. D. (2004). The Potential Impact of the No Child Left Behind Act on Equity and Diversity in American Education. Educational Policy, 18(1), 71–94.

Kode, K. (2017). Elizabeth Farrell and the History of Special Education (2nd Ed.) Council of Exceptional Children.

Meek, C. (2006). From the inside out: A look at testing special education students. Phi Delta Kappan, 88(4), 293-297.

National Council on Disability (2004). Equality of Opportunity: The making of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Pardini, P. (2017). The History of Special Education. Weebly.

The Minnesota Governor’s Council on Developmental Disabilities (2022). Parallels in Time: A history of developmental disabilities.