Educational Rights of the Disabled

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is a federal law that guarantees a free and appropriate public education for every child with a disability. This means that if you enroll your child in public school, his or her education should be free, and should be appropriate for his or her age, ability and developmental level.

Summarized here are a few aspects of IDEA '97. (for a complete copy of the IDEA, please refer to the url at the end of this article)

• The IDEA focuses on improving teaching and learning, with a specific focus on the Individualized Education Program (IEP) to use as a tool for strengthening the child's involvement and progress in the general curriculum.

• In order to be eligible for State funding under Part B of IDEA, children with disabilities have to be included in general State and district-wide assessment programs. This includes timelines and reporting requirements.

• If a child with a disability is, or may be, participating in a regular education environment, the IEP team for this child must include at least one of the child's regular education teachers. This regular education teacher participates in the development, review and revision of the IEP of the child.

• Schools can remove a child for up to ten school days at a time for any violation of school rules, as long as there is not a pattern, and children with disabilities can not be long-term suspended or expelled from school for behavior that is a manifestation of his or her disability and services must continue for children with disabilities who are suspended or expelled from school. Schools do have the authority to remove them to an interim alternative educational placement for up to 45 days, which would apply to all dangerous weapons, possession of illegal drugs and sale or solicitation of the sale of controlled substances. The schools can request a hearing officer to remove a child for up to 45 days if keeping the child in his or her current placement is substantially likely to result in injury to the child or others. Schools are required to assess children's troubling behavior and develop positive behavioral interventions to address that behavior, and defining how to determine whether behavior is a manifestation of a child's disability.

• The 1997 IDEA amendments allowed States to define developmental delay for children ages 3 through 9, and authorized Local Education Agencies to choose to use the category and, if they do, they are required to use the State's definition.

Go To Page: 1 2

Articles in this Topic    Discussions in this Topic