Fifty years after the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act transformed special education services for children with disabilities, it is important to both celebrate its legacy and confront the urgent work still needed to fulfill its promise.
During its 50th year, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act is under attack. Disabled students are more vulnerable than ever in the face of threats to funding, services, and federal protections, alongside layoffs to federal civil servants who oversee the administration of these crucial programs.
Before IDEA, disabled children were often denied access to educational opportunities and segregated into institutions that were rife with abuse and neglect. Institutionalization peaked around the mid-20th century: In 1967, 228,843 people with intellectual and developmental disabilities were institutionalized, and in 1955, 558,992 people with psychological disabilities were living in county- or state-run facilities. In the 1960s and ‘70s, journalists and politicians visited these institutions, unveiling the cruel conditions these people were forced to endure. U.S. Sen. Robert F. Kennedy (D-NY) visited New York’s notorious Willowbrook State School and stated: “There are no civil liberties for those put in the cells of Willowbrook—living amidst brutality and human excrement and intestinal disease.”
A movement to deinstitutionalize disabled people gained traction after these horror stories came to light. In order to help integrate disabled children, Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA) in 1975, which legislated civil rights protections and promised funding for services to ensure disabled people from infancy to age 21 had access to a free appropriate public education. Congress promised to increase funding for disability services until 1982, when the federal contribution would cap at 40 percent per fiscal year. Later, the EHA was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Act (IDEA) under a reauthorization in 1990; and the law was reauthorized again in 2004, with some regulatory changes. Yet it has never been funded at levels adequate to provide comprehensive services to all eligible children and students. For example, the federal budget for IDEA Part B grants last year stood at approximately 10.9 percent. States often must supplement funding for their IDEA services by utilizing federal Medicaid dollars—established in 1965—as well as by dedicating a portion of funding to services for disabled children and adults.
Before IDEA, almost 1.8 million disabled students were completely blocked from educational opportunities. In 1970, only 1 in 5 disabled children received an education. But since IDEA’s passage, the number of disabled students and children receiving IDEA services and attending school has continued to rise. In the 2022–23 school year, 7.6 million students participated in IDEA Part B services. Yet rather than expand needed resources, the Trump administration and Congress have pushed for funding cuts, U.S. Department of Education layoffs, and instability within a system designed to support and protect disabled students.