ESTABLISHING US LEGAL GUARANTEE OF SPECIAL EDUCATION AT THE EARLY AND PREPARATORY STAGES
Keywords:
special education in the USA, legal regulation of special education, periodization of the legal support development of special education, periodization of the formation of legal support for special education in the United StatesAbstract
The article emphasizes that the legal factor plays the major role among the other leading factors determining the development of special education in the country, because it garantees the social transformations of a certain historical period. An analysis of the content of the laws adopted by the US Congress between 1798 and 1974 to improve the welfare and guarantee the democratic rights and freedoms of persons with disabilities, including the right to education, is the aim of the article. The chronological table, which identifies the historical periods of the adopted legislation for legal support of the US special education system, is compiled. The six periods of development of the US legislation on special education are identified as following: early, introductory, revolutionary, progressive, reformatic, and postmodernistic. The role of the early and introductory periods of the US legislation development for creation of the necessary legislative prerequisites for the current system of special education in the United States is highlighted. Features of the early and introductory periods of special education legislation development in the USA are described in details. It is noted that at the early period (before 1964) the first episodic laws were passed, which introduced a small aid or rehabilitation program for a wide range of people, including the elderly, the blind, children with mental and physical disabilities, and established separate rules for training teachers to work with students with special educational needs. The introductory period (1965-1974) was marked by the first serious steps to make life easier for people with disabilities. There were some challenging innovations in the introductory period: the prohibition of discrimination on the basis of psychological or physical disabilities, the guarantee of the right to education, the provision of related services and its financing, and the mandatory involvement of parents in the educational process. “The Elementary and Secondary Education Act” was the key legal regulator of preschool and secondary education to establish the need for teaching students with special educational needs and compiling special instructional resources for them.
References
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Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA). Public Law 94-142. 1975. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED116399.pdf.
Elementary and Secondary Education Act. Public Law 89–10. 1965. Available at: https://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/oii/nonpublic/eseareauth.pdf.
Eskay M., Onu V. C., Ugwuanyi L., Obiyo N. O., Udaya J. Preparing Teachers for Special Education in the United States: A Reflection. US-China Education Review, 2012, pp. 394–407. Available at: https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED533558.pdf.
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