Ethics and Law for School Psychologists, 8th Edition

Chapter 4 ETHICAL-LEGAL ISSUES IN THE EDUCATION OF STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES UNDER IDEA

Education law is one thing; educational action is quite another. Between the two events, the passing of a law and the behavior of the school, must occur a chain of intermediate events: the interpretation of the law in terms of practice; the study of the feasibility of the interpretation; the successive adjustments, reorganizations, retrainings, and redesign of administrative procedures; the self-monitoring and reporting—the reality testing.

(Page, 1980, p. 423)

This chapter provides a summary of law pertinent to providing services to children with disabilities. It focuses on the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, as amended in 2004 (IDEA). Special education services for children with disabilities ages 3 through 21 are discussed first in some detail (IDEA—Part B). This is followed by a summary of the federal legislation that provides funds for early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities (IDEA—Part C).

EDUCATION OF CHILDREN WITH DISABILITIES: A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE

It is important for school psychology practitioners to have some knowledge of the history of IDEA to appreciate fully the meaning of current law. In the text that follows, we have summarized case law and early legislation that foreshadowed the most important special education law, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (Pub. L. No. 94–142), later replaced by the Individuals ...