IDEA

What did we think before?
Before this was passed in 1975 we thought that students with disabilities should be able to go to schools, but we thought that if they wanted to go to school they would have to pay for it. We thought that the kids would have to pay to get all the materials that they needed due to their disability. We didn't feel it was our responsibility to give them anything more than we gave the regular students.

What do we think now?
After this was passed in 1975 we decided that we should go the extra step and help these students by going out and getting the special things they needed in oprder to learn. The government was going to give the schools a good amount of money so they could start special programs and do things that would help the students with disabilities get a better education. This was the point in time that we decided that everyone should be able to get an equal education no matter what the situation. We felt that a child with disabilities should get just as good of an eduaction as a student with no disablilties.

How do we still act like we did before?
Sometimes in school we have the chance to put a child with disabilities into a classroom with the rest of the students, but a teacher doesn't take the time to try and help the child in the classroom or they feel that having the child in the room is making it hard for all the other children. This makes it so the child has to go into a special classroom and isn't able to be with the rest of his or her peers. This makes it so the child doesn't get the same rights as the other students and makes it seem like nothing has changed.

Resources: http://www.house.gov/ed_workforce/issues/109th/education/idea/ideafaq.pdf

http://www.nichcy.org/idea.htm