Abstract

All parents have the basic right to guide the educational future of their children. Prior to the 1970s, however, it was not unusual for the parents of a handicapped child to find it difficult, if not impossible, to provide their child with a genuine opportunity to learn. Despite the Supreme Court's proclamation in 1954 that education, "where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a right which must be made available to all on equal terms," handicapped children were routinely excluded from public education or segregated within it. Congress, responding to the increasingly vocal call for equal education, took significant steps in 1970 to remedy the inequities by enacting legislation to help states educate handicapped children, the culmination of which was the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 ("EHA"). ...

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

1989

Share

COinS