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In the first half of the 19th century, Michel Charles de l'Epee, a French priest, believed and shared that the use of the written word and sign language used at the time was the best way to educate the deaf.
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Jean-Marc-Gaspard Itard worked with an unsocialized 11-year-old boy, Victor, found in a forest south of Paris. He helped Victor to learn and doing so showed that what was thought about people with disabilities was inaccurate.
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In 1817, Thomas Gallaudet, along with Laurent Clerc, established the first school for the deaf in Hartford, Connecticut. Gallaudet was inspired to travel to Europe to learn more about teaching deaf children after meeting 9-year-old Alice Cogswell, his next-door neighbor. In Europe, he met Laurent Clerc and Jean Massieu who were both faculty members at Royal des Sourds-Muet in Paris. Gallaudet persuaded Clerc to come back to the states with him to teach. -
Louis Braille created the raised dot method for reading that allowed blind people to be more fully included in French Society. He was a former student of the School for the Blind, founded by Valentin Huy in 1784. -
In the early 1900's, intelligence testing became a method of determining what a child was mentally capable of. This caused students to be segregated and placed in institutions. In these institutions, they were subject to sterilization, forced labor, abuse, and experimental medical procedures. This was a part of Eugenics, or selective reproduction of humans with the goal of enhancing the species.
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The Mental Deficiency Act, which replaced the 1816 Idiots Act, mandated that government agencies be responsible for persons with disabilities be that in an asylum or otherwise.
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As the need for advocacy grew for children with exceptionalities, groups began to form. These groups fought for inclusion of individuals with exceptionalities into society, including education. The Council for Exceptional Children was one of those groups.
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Starting in the 1930's, applied clinical teaching practices began to blossom. In it, individual learning is a focus and allows for growth among students with exceptionalities in a new way.
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"Separate but Equal is not Equal" This landmark case ruled that segregation in public schools was against the constitutional rights of black students. It also gave ground for many other minority classes including those with exceptionalities to make headway on their rights. -
This landmark court case deemed placing students based on their standardized test scores unconstitutional because it discriminated against African American and Poor Children. It was another win for the disabled community, giving them more ground to fight from.
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In this case, the court ruled that Free Appropriate (Public) Education, or FAPE, must be provided for all children with exceptionalities regardless of the severity of their disability.
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The Education for all Handicapped Children act, or EHA, insured individuals with exceptionalities had free access to public education, or FAPE. It also insured that they were taught in the Least Restrictive Environment, or LRE. This act would later evolve into the Individuals with Disabilities Act, or IDEA.
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This case implemented into law that students with exceptionalities had access to inclusive classrooms. Previously, students with exceptionalities were taught in separate classrooms.
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Taking place in Pennsylvania, this court case resulted in those who teach special education must be qualified to teach.
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The Regular Education Initiative, or REI, was a sweep to ease the transition of mainstreaming for students and their teachers. Beginning in the late 1980's it grew and was developed into the early 90's. It was spearheaded by Madeline Will, the assistant secretary for the office of Special Education and Rehabilitation services. The results were the pull-out practice and resource rooms, a way to teach students with exceptionalities in inclusive environments.
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In this case, a deaf student was refused a sign language interpreter. The supreme court ruled in favor with the school saying that the student did not need a federally funded interpreter since she was still able to learn through lip reading. The results were the development of the Individualized Education Plan.
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The Americans with Disabilities Act, or ADA, prohibits discrimination against all areas of public life towards people with disabilities. This includes equal opportunity in employment, state and local government services, public accommodations, and transportation. -
The Salamanca Statement called upon all countries of the United Nations to adopt inclusive classrooms for teaching students with exceptionalities. It was done at the World Conference on Special Needs Education: Access and Quality.
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Amongst other widespread cuts to the Department of Education, the Trump administration cuts nearly all federal funding for special education and IDEA and fires almost all Department of Education workers whose focus was Special Education.