The Future of Learning Disabilities as Federal Laws Change Again

Abstract

As federal special education laws change once again--with the passage of the 2004 Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA) amendments--what impact is it likely to have for parents, students, teachers, evaluators, school administrators, and the courts? Is it too optimistic to hope that we might learn to avoid some mistakes of the past 35 years and to build on our many successes? This writer is an attorney who became involved with the field of learning disabilities before special education problems were even being taken into the courtroom. While serving as legislative assistant to the United States senator who chaired the Senate subcommittee on education as the country began to deal with special education, we realized that we needed to have federal laws and federal oversight of what was happening to these millions of students in state and local programs. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act passed in 1968 promised to help states and local schools develop a comprehensive system of development by which we would acquire and disseminate promising educational practices and thereby assure an adequate supply of appropriately trained personnel (U.S. Code 1412(a)(14), 34 C.F.R. 300.135). The majority of those would learn that students with learning disabilities were about half of the population with disabilities that would be served in the public schools and that they could be as severely disabled educationally as many students in other categories of disability. In 1973 Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act was finally passed after two presidential vetoes. With the first federal statute supporting rights of students specifically with disabilities, this writer turned to litigation in special education. We were told by the U.S. Department of Education that our Section 504 complaint involving student with learning disability as well as other problems was the first in the nation. Our client eventually got everything we asked for, including an independent evaluation, an IEP meeting (the first in our state), program tailored to her unique needs, and written reports on her progress. Our first lawsuit under Section 504 produced the second federal court decision in the country, Howard S. v Friendswood Indep. School Dist., 454 F. Supp. 634 (S.D. TX 1978). Our client, student with learning disabilities, was discriminated against and denied simple accommodations. Many argued that Section 504 dealt only with physical barriers to accessibility, failing to understand that learning disabilities were also covered. In fact, in some procedural ways Section 504 offers stronger protections to parents than the IDEA. In 1975 The Education for All Handicapped Children Act went into effect, and was later amended to be The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. I did not imagine that we would need additional federal laws to protect students with learning disabilities, but from 1984 to 1990 I was member of task force that developed recommendations that resulted in the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The ADA places many requirements on public schools for accessibility. Thus, Section 504 and ADA complaints and litigation have provided strong support for students with learning disabilities. We have also filed successful complaints under Section 504 and the ADA on behalf of teachers with learning disabilities who faced discrimination in required evaluations and tests. The initial federal disability statutes began to bring onto school campuses millions of students who had previously been denied admission, particularly children with physical disabilities, serious intellectual disabilities, and conduct that could not be controlled on regular campus. Elaborate and sometimes costly programs were set up for these students. If we could create elaborate and costly programs for those populations, why couldn't students with learning disabilities get the rather simple accommodations that could make them successful on regular campus? …