Federal court orders public schools to educate the handicapped

K.W. Stanley / "History in the Valley"
Published: May 26, 2008

While attending Jackson Wilson Elementary School between 1948 and 1955, I did not observe any Waynesboro classes for handicapped pupils, although a speech therapist was available. Pupils who may have been disabled often failed to master grade skills and dropped out of school by the middle elementary grades.
Public schools before the 1960s lacked funding and staff trained to teach handicapped pupils. Severely handicapped children were kept at home. Deaf and blind children had the option of attending the Virginia School for the Deaf, Dumb and Blind (VSDB) in Staunton (ca. 1846).
Before 1970, schools in the United States educated only one in five children with disabilities. Many states excluded children who were deaf, blind, emotionally disturbed or mentally retarded. Before the Education for All Handicapped Children’s Act of 1975 (Public Law 94-142) many individuals lived in state institutions for persons with mental retardation or mental illness. In 1967, state institutions housed 200,000 persons with significant disabilities who were accommodated rather than educated.
Significant changes were on the horizon by the mid-1960s. Congress approved the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965, to strengthen the quality of education in schools.
Eight months later, amendments were added to ESEA authorizing a federal grant program to state agencies including Virginia to educate children with disabilities in state supported schools and institutions. By 1966, ESEA was expanded to include a federal grant program (Title VI) for the education of children with disabilities in local schools. This act established the Bureau of Education for the Handicapped (BEH) to administer Office of Education programs for children with disabilities.
Additional amendments to ESEA approved by Congress in 1968 added federal funding for regional resource centers for children with deaf and blind disabilities. These federal grant programs were consolidated in 1970 as Part B, Education of the Handicapped Act.
Two cases heard by the U.S. Supreme Court in 1972 (Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Citizens vs. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and Mills vs. Board of Education) established the responsibility of states and localities to educate children with disabilities. The court ruled every child with a disability has a right to be educated and is protected by the 14th Amendment, the Equal Protection Clause of the Constitution.
The Education of Handicapped Act Amendments in 1974 required states to establish a timetable toward achieving full educational opportunity for all children with disabilities and provided procedural safeguards for use in identifying, evaluating and placement of children with disabilities.
This act mandated such children should be integrated into regular classes when possible. The Education for All Handicapped Children’s Act of 1975 (Public Law 94-142) guaranteed a “free, appropriate, public education” (FAPE) to each child in every state and locality across the country.
Since 1975 progress has been made by public schools, including those in Waynesboro, in developing and implementing programs and services of early intervention, special education and related services for handicapped students.
Early intervention programs and services are provided to eligible infants and their families. Most children with disabilities are educated with their peers in neighborhood schools, rather than in separate schools and institutions.
K.W. Stanley is a Waynesboro resident, historian and TNV correspondent. Contact him at .