Education Week

Fifty years ago, Congress dramatically expanded schools’ responsibilities when it passed the nation’s primary special education law, requiring children with disabilities to receive a “free appropriate public education” alongside their non-disabled peers. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act, as it was then called, required schools to identify students with disabilities and make individualized plans to meet their needs. Disability rights advocates celebrated the law. But even as President Gerald Ford signed it on Dec. 2, 1975, he expressed concerns that Congress would not be able to provide adequate funding to meet its detailed mandates.

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