DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES

Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines ISO 9001: 2015 AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga

Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211 QMS-Certified
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph

Course Code: ELEC 323B

Course Title: Psychology in Exceptional Children
Part II | Helping Process
Lesson 1: Individuals with Disability Education Act (IDEA)

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

In 1975, Congress passed Public Law 94-142, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. This piece of legislation completely
changed the face of education in this country. Congress has reauthorized and amended PL 94-142 five times. The 1990 amendments
renamed the law the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The most recent reauthorization of IDEA, PL 108-466, is titled The Individuals with
Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. IDEA exerts a profound influence on what takes place in every school building
in the country and has changed the roles and responsibilities of general and special educators, school administrators, parents,
and students with disabilities. The law reflects society’s concern about treating people with disabilities as full citizens
with the same rights and privileges all other citizens enjoy.

The purposes of IDEA are:

1. (A) to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that
emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further
education, employment, and independent living; (B) to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents
of such children are protected; and (C) to assist states, localities, educational service agencies, and Federal agencies
to provide for the education of all children with disabilities;

2. to assist States in the implementation of a statewide, comprehensive, coordinated, multidisciplinary, interagency

system of early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families;

3. to ensure that educators and parents have the necessary tools to improve educational results for children with
disabilities by supporting system improvement activities; coordinated research and personnel preparation; coordinated
technical assistance, dissemination, and support; and technology development and media services; and

4. to assess, and ensure the effectiveness of, efforts to educate children with disabilities.

Major Principles of IDEA

The majority of the many rules and regulations defining how IDEA operates fall within six major principles, most of
which have remained basically unchanged since 1975.

Zero Reject
Schools must educate all children with disabilities. No child with disabilities may be excluded from a free public
education, regardless of the nature or severity of the disability. The requirement to provide special education to all
students with disabilities is absolute between the ages 6 and 17 years. If a state provides educational services
to children without disabilities who are the ages of 3 to 5 and 18 to 21 years, it must also educate all children with
disabilities in those age groups. Each state’s education agency is responsible for locating, identifying, and evaluating
all children with disabilities or suspected of having disabilities, from birth to age 21 years. This requirement of IDEA
is called the child find system.

Nondiscriminatory Evaluation
Schools must use nonbiased, multifactored methods of evaluation to determine whether a child has a disability and, if
so, whether the child needs specially designed instruction to benefit from education. Testing and evaluation procedures
 DON HONORIO VENTURA STATE UNIVERSITY COLLEGE OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
Cabambangan, Villa de Bacolor 2001, Pampanga, Philippines ISO 9001: 2015 AND PHILOSOPHY
DHVSU Main Campus, Villa de Bacolor, Pampanga

Tel. No. (6345) 458 0021; Fax (6345) 458 0021 Local 211 QMS-Certified
URL: http://dhvsu.edu.ph

must not discriminate on the basis of race, culture, or native language. All tests must be administered in the child’s
native language, and identification and placement decisions cannot be made on the basis of a single test score.

Free Appropriate Public Education

All children with disabilities, regardless of the type or severity of their disability, shall receive a FAPE. This education
must be provided at public expense—that is, without cost to the child’s family. An individualized education program
(IEP) must be developed and implemented to meet the unique needs of each student with a disability.

INDIVIDUALIZED EDUCATION PROGRAM (IEP)

According to IDEA, IEP specifies the child’s present levels of performance, identifies measurable annual
goals, and describes the specific special education and related services that will
be provided to help the child attain those goals and benefit from education

Autism Society defines an Individualized Education Program/ Plan (IEP) as a basic requirement for schools catering to children
with special needs. The IEP is a written plan that specifies the students’ academic goals and the method to obtain these goals.

The IEP should include the student’s current skills, his/her strengths, weaknesses and learning style, and what goals will be targeted
within the school year. It is every exceptional student’s lifeline for academic success. If students with special needs are to achieve
the academic curriculum or an alternative curriculum to the best of their ability and as independently as possible, the professionals
involved in the delivery of their programming must have a plan in place.

However, unlike in the US, the schools here are not legally bound to formulate an IEP for special needs nor to convene a meeting
of all persons involved in the education of the child. Oftentimes, it is up to the parent to take steps to ensure their child is getting
the right services and educational accommodations.

The IEP process entails the participation of everyone involved with the child’s education. IEP team members include parents of
the student, special education teacher, classroom teacher, therapists, even caregivers.

Before setting goals the team must first determine the present level of performance using various assessment tools. After the goals
have been identified, it is then stated how the team will help the student to achieve the goals, this is referred to as the measurable
part of the goals. Each goal must have a clearly stated objective how, where and when each task will be implemented. Adaptations,
aides or supportive techniques that may be required to encourage success must be defined and listed. Monitoring and measurement
of progress should also be clearly explained.

References:

Koe, D. (October 18, 2011). Help on the way for the IEP team. http://www.autismsocietyphilippines.org/2011/10/help-on-way-
for-iep-team.html

Heward, W. L., Alber-Morgan, S.R. & Konrad, M. (2017). Exceptional Children: An Introduction to Special Education. Pearson
Education, Inc. or its affiliates