Overview of Special Education

The purpose of this paper is to provide a brief overview of special education. To this end, the paper presents a discussion of: a) federal and state legislation passed in the last decade to support special education services; b) current trends in the special education field; and c) conditions currently providing a challenge to special educators in both the United States in general and California in particular.

In their discussion of laws affecting special education, Papalia and Olds (1995) refer to the Education for all Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) of 1975 as the cornerstone of all new programs, courses, curricula, credentials and so forth that have arisen in special education from that period to the present. This law was expanded by Amendment PL 99-457 (passed in 1986) which extended the full rights and protection of the original law to handicapped children ages three to five; this law was implemented in the 1990-1991 school year.

It will be remembered here that these rights and protections include the education of special needs students in the least restrictive environment at public expense and under public supervision and direction. Further, the law mandated that schools must not only adopt policies that serve all handicapped students, they must also conduct searches to locate these students.

PL 94-142 was reauthorized in 1991, the legislation being retitled the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act or IDEA. Supporting thi

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