As you will read in chapter two, IDEA is the federal statute that governs special education and the implementation of it in schools. It was first passed in 1975 (P.L. 94-142) and has gone through several revisions (amendments) since then, with the latest one being the 2004 amendments that were agreed upon only after a good bit of debate from many interest groups. IDEA is a far reaching and very comprehensive law that shapes the special educator’s moment to moment practice, but also has a lot of impact in the regular education setting due especially in part to the LRE mandate. Please consider and contemplate this as you answer the discussion question below.
Question: In what ways do you feel and see the effects of special education legislation in the course of your school day? In other words, where do you see IDEA in effect and how does it influence your practice