Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)

Running head: INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES ECUATION ACT 1
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
Student’s Name
Institutional Affiliation

INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT 2
Introduction
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) represents four parts (A-D) of the
American law that is designed to ensure that students who have disabilities can access to Free
Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) that evaluates their individual demands (Hebbeler, Spiker
& Kahn, 2012). Initially, the IDEA was referred to as Education for All Handicapped Children
Act (EHA) from 1975 to 1990. IDEA is divided into four segments whereby A, outlines the
legislation provisions, B outlines the support offered to students with disabilities, C contains data
about toddlers and infants with disabilities, while D outlines the support that is administered by
the national programs at the state level (Adams & Tapia, 2013). Notably, despite the changes that
have occurred to IDEA since its development in 1975, the four parts remain constant (Aron &
Loprest, 2012). While IDEA’s main goal is to ensure that children with disabilities access to
equal education like those without disabilities, not all students with attention and learning
problems qualify.
Describe How the Individuals with Disabilities Education (Improvement) Act Serve
Children Who Have Special Developmental and Medical Needs
IDEA serves students with special development and medical needs in various ways.
Notably, most of the public schools in the United States such as the charter and traditional
schools struggle to ensure a consistent provision of high-quality learning to learners with special
needs (Baglieri, Valle, Connor & Gallagher, 2011). Based on the evidence, the students with
disabilities experience low graduation rates and also, they are hindered from accessing the post
graduation studies. In this case, IDEA intervenes by minimizing the disproportionate education
share and achievement gaps between students with disabilities and general students. IDEA also
ensures that the learners with disabilities are provided with facilities for juvenile detention. By

INDIVIDUALS WITH DISABILITIES EDUCATION ACT 3
evaluating the information provided by the United States Department of Education, it uncovers
about the IDEA implementation and it depicts that 50% of the states fulfill the federal
government’s requirements for special learning. The figure below provides evidence about the
achievement of learners with and without disabilities from 2005 to 2015.
Figure 1: provides evidence for achievement of learners with and without disabilities
(Rhim, Sutter & Campbell, 2017).
To achieve high-quality instructions in an educational setting, first of all, it is important
to note that environment is a crucial element that seeks to ensure that learners with disabilities
strive to attain higher levels as the other students. Such students need to be equipped with highly-
individualized skills of special education that includes audiologists and visual impairment. In this
case, the IDEA supports the learning institutions towards developing structures that can
overcome challenges of establishing and maintaining special education across states and districts.
Provided the documented and costs challenges that are associated with specialized staff who can
enhance special education, the structures established can play significant roles in ensuring