Where did Special educational needs come from!!?
Special education is older than that. Mandated by the then-named ‘Education for all Handicapped Children’ act, a 1975 federal law required public school districts to provide all children, regardless of disability or severity of disability, with a free appropriate public school education (FAPE). It was signed into law by then-president Gerald Ford. Prior to that time, only 1 out of 5 students with disabilities were being educated–if at all. Over one million school-aged children lacked access to appropriate instruction even when they were admitted to public school. Smith V. Robinson (1984) later said families had to seek administrative relief under this law when alleging that school districts were providing innappropriate educations to students with disabilties. So Congress merely responded by amending EHCA to clarify what legal resources were available to students with disabilities and their families experiencing problems with a school/school district.
