Of course, later, schools had to affirmatively go and seek out children with disabilities.
Like other civil rights laws, implementation is a challenge, and it has been revised over the years.
So the first question in special ed is: are you eligible? To be eligible, you need to have:
§ 504 of the rehabilitation act (1973; a precursor to the ADA, really) covers people who have a disability but not really a special ed need. It says basically if you receive federal money, you can't discriminate, and must make "reasonable accomodations." So, for example, a child with diabetes might need some scheduling accomodations for nurse visits or snacks.
By the way, IDEA is the only at that actually gives individual rights to students.
So, sometimes there would be conflict (parents not wanting to consent to evaluation) because (prior to 2004), the districts could get in trouble for not providing FAPE. So in 2004, congress allowed parents to refuse to consent, and this would relieve the district of its obligation.
OHI: "Other Health Impairment" is kind of a catch-all for eligibility. This is why a full evaluation is required: it prevents kids from being excluded just because someone's initial impression of why an evaluation might be needed was wrong.
IDEA Part C starts at birth and goes to 3 years old. So it's not a school program-- here it's run by Dept. of Health Services-- but in some states it is run by Dept. of Ed.
Part B is what we're mostly about. Age 3-21. Typically kindergarten starts at 5, but we're seeing that creep down somewhat, so this means some form of home services, child-care, or pre-school. And you only get services up to 21 if you haven't otherwise graduated (i.e. once you graduate, you're done). So child find starts at birth, and starts for schools at 3. But it doesn't end there-- some disabilities arise or express themselves later (e.g., some mental illnesses).
State Education Agency (SEA): a generic term, since different states have different things (e.g.: WI has Dept of Public Instruction).
Schools can't find a student to qualify for special ed on the basis of lack of quality curriculum, lack of English as a first language, or lack of a stable home background. But, of course, that doesn't mean that there aren't folks fitting that description who need special ed.
About 2/3 of the children referred for evaluation do indeed qualify. So this suggests both that this is a reliable referral process, and also that it's not just a rubber stamp.
Even private schools have the evaluation obligation, though not the FAPE obligation.
There are only 4 required people on the IEP term:
If the parent disagrees with the IEP team's findings, the parent can request an IEE (independent educational evaluation) at the district's expense. The district can refuse and take it to a hearing officer, but that will probably cost more (and make a parent mad) than just doing the evaluation.
Re-evaluations every 3 years. Lots of kids (who have gotten good speech pathology, e.g.) will no longer have a need after 3 years.
The same team that does the evaluation does this (used to be 2 different teams, but those are collapsed into 1 nowadays). They might bring in one or more specialists to help.
The goals are designed to make sure the child receives FAPE.
An IEP is sort of like a contract in that it discribes what is supposed to happen, and what the end goals are supposed to be, and how you're supposed to get there.
An IEP has to be revisited at least annually: it can't last more than a year.
Regression and Recoupment analysis: how much regression will the child have over the summer, and how long will it take to catch back up. If the recoupment time is long enough, there won't be sufficient progress in the school year, so ESY is required.
About 90% of disputes get resolved in mediation. It's voluntary, of course.
You can also file a written complaint to the SEA, although it's not 100% clear what the obligations of an SEA are in dispute resolution. This is a good pathway if you've got a clear-cut administrative/paperwork issue (e.g., they took 120 days to do the IEP). But this isn't the best plan for a FAPE or placement claim. For those you want a due process hearing (i.e., an administrative hearing).
14A and 5A (due process and equal protection).
Due process: no notice, and no hearing. There's no constitutional right to education (US constitution anyway). So why do children have a constitutional issue here? Because you can't remove a state-conferred benefit without due process of law.
Equal protection: if the state is going to provide this, it has to do it equally.
So this isn't a substantive right-- it's just procedural-- say some, but the net effect is to determine whether the child is getting FAPE in the LRE, and that's about the most substantive a right as one can imagine.
Why do we want class actions, if every individual has the right to due process hearings? Because sometimes not all affected plaintiffs have even been identified yet. How would people falling outside of child find (because their rights are being ignored) complain, if they don't have any way of knowing their rights are being violated?
This challenges educators to think outside the box of traditional education. We want those kids to achieve as much as possible, but that might not come in the same form it does with other kids. It's not about what curriculum we provide: it's about what education this child needs.
Nevertheless, school districts still try towards cookie-cutter approaches, often for resource management reasons.
But with budget contractions, we'll probably see some real LRE issues: no layoffs in special ed, but plenty of layoffs in regular ed.