In the past thirty years education for children with disabilities has improved greatly. The improvement of the education for children with disabilities has been a slow process, and it still can use even more improvement. Before 1975 children with disabilities did not have a right to receive free public education. Then in 1975 the Congress passed the Public Law 94-142, Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA). This law required public schools to provide free education in the least restrictive environment for children between the ages of three and twenty-one with all types of disabilities. Today the law is now known as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The law has basically stayed the same except for now it also includes infants, toddlers, and their family, also an improvement on the services has been made.
The Education for All Handicapped Children Act regulations were issued to begin with the 1977-1978 school year. In the same year a requirement for school districts to evaluate their policies and stop discriminatory policies, which later Congress noted that this requirement was illegally ignored. Children with all different types of disabilities were put into a hidden location away from the children without disabilities. Today, no matter what kind of disability a child has they are integrated in classrooms with the children without disabilities. These children are included in the same daily activities and accommodations are made if needed.
In 1975 the Individualized Education Program (IEP) was also started, which is a contract between the parents and school staff on what services the student with disabilities will receive. Services include physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech therapy, psychological services, audio and visual services, social work, and transportation and these services are at little to no cost to the parents. Today this program is still used by public schools and now it is believed that the earlier a child receives the services the more they will benefit. In 1975 the federal government promised that they would pay 40% of the cost to educated children with disabilities, but the federal government has never paid more than 15% of the total cost. The rest of the cost has been taken care of by state and local districts.