Date

Event

c.330-379 AD

• Among the most noted of the hospices for the poor and afflicted which began to appear in all parts of Christendom almost as soon as persecution ceased, was that established in the fourth century by Saint Basil at Cæsarea, where special provision was made for the blind, and guides were supplied for them.

c. 412 A.D.

• In the fifth century, Limnæus, a hermit of Syria, received the blind of the surrounding country, whom he taught, among other things, to sing the praises of God

c553-623A.D.

• Early in the seventh century, St. Bertrand, Bishop of Le Mans, founded a hospice for the blind at Pontlieu, in the north-west of France.

• towards the year 630, a refuge exclusively for the blind, such as was called in the Middle Ages a typhlocomium, was founded at Jerusalem.

1027 --1087A.D.

• In the eleventh century, William the Conqueror, in expiation of his sins, founded a number of institutions; among: them four hospices for the blind and other infirm persons at Cherbourg, Rouen, Bayeux and Caen respectively.

1215-1270A.D.

• Towards 1260, St. Louis, King of France, established at Paris the Hospice des Quinze-Vingts, where he housed and instructed three hundred blind persons. The inmates of the hospice, after the example of the students and the craftsmen of the day, formed among themselves a distinct brotherhood, to whom the saintly king gave special statutes and privileges.

1305-1322

• A hospice for the blind is said to have been erected (1305) at Bruges, in Flanders, by Robert de Béthune, in gratitude for the courage displayed by the inhabitants in repelling (1300) an invasion of Philip the Fair.

• Care of the blind, so complex and sophisticated today, dates back over 600 years in Britain. The first asylum to shelter 100 blind men was built near London Wall in 1329 by William Elsing, a London mercer, at ‘Elsing Spittle’ or ‘Spital’. It is the first documented example of the private philanthropy which was to play such a large part in blind welfare.The hospital of St. Mary within Cripplegate owed its origin to the compassion felt by William Elsing, mercer of London, for the blind beggars who wandered about the City without refuge of any sort. On some land belonging to him in the parishes of St. Alphage and St. Mary (fn. 1) he established, in 1331, a hospital that was intended to accommodate 100 persons of both sexes, but appears to have started with thirty-two inmates. By the founder's wish blind or paralysed priests were to be received in preference to any other people. (fn. 2) The government of the hospital and the performance of the religious duties for which the house was in part founded were entrusted to five secular priests, of whom one was to be the custos or warden.

c1350A.D.

• A Hospice for the Blind was established and endowed at Chartres by King John the Good in 1350. Provision was made for 120 blind persons.

c1501-1576

• Girolamo Cardano (1501-1576), an Italian mathematician, had pointed out a way of teaching the blind to read and write by the sense of touch. They were to trace with a steel bodkin or stylus the outline of each of the letters of the alphabet, engraved on metal, until they could distinguish the letters by the sense of touch and reproduce them on paper. Cardano, however, failed to suggest how to write on a straight line with uniformity of space between the lines.

1520-1584

• Pedro Ponce De Leon, 1520-1584, Catholic monk, established the world's first school for the Deaf at the Monastery of San Salvador near Madrid, Spain where he taught till his death. "He taught the Deaf mutes from birth to speak." Peter of Ponce first taught them "to write while showing them with his finger the object which was named by the written characters; then drilling them to repeat with the vocal organs the words which correspond to these characters." He was the inventor of this art and each pupil reasoned very well. He kept records of his methods and results but were destroyed in a fire. "In spite of his success and the favorable publicity of his work, at his death it seemed to die with him."

1575

• In 1575 Rampazetto produced at Rome prints in intaglio from letters carved in wood. His invention was dedicated to St. Charles Borromeo.

1580

• Francesco Lucas, at Madrid, engraved letters in wood for the instruction of the blind; but the letters being sunk in the wood, the outlines could not as readily be followed with the finger-tips.

• Henry Swinburne proposed tests to diagnose mental retardation, e.g., asking the Individual to measure a yard of cloth and to name the days of the week. (Testing)

1593

• Fray Meichior de Yebra was the first Spaniard to set down a method of communication for the deaf. The monk adapted a hand alphabet used by members of Catholic brotherhoods sworn to silence after concluding that a means was needed of communicating with those who were unable to speak but wished the rites of the church. De Yebra also indicated that such a sign language was already used by some in the deaf community. It was probably spread by deaf boys who had been educated in the monasteries and subsequently hired as the teachers of deaf children of the wealthy. It should be noted that de Yebra's hand alphabet is nearly identical to that used by hearing-impaired Americans in the twentieth century

1601

• the Poor Law Act of Queen Elizabeth, was the first statute enacting relief on national lines, It specifically mentions relief to be given, amongst others, to the destitute blind.

1620

• Juan Pablo de Bonet developed procedures for teaching the deaf, based on finger spelling. He wrote the first published book of oral teaching methods for deaf people. He was born on July 1, 1579, in a little town in Spain, Torres de Berrellen.After serving in the army and learning Italian and French, he was hired as secretary by the Duke of Frias. The duke's second son, Luis, was deaf, and Manuel Ramírez de Carrión was employed to teach Luis, using the methods developed by Pedro Ponce de Leon. Bonet spent some time watching Ramirez and took over the education of Luis when Ramirez left.
  In 1620, Bonet published his renowned book, Reduction de las letras, y arte para ensenar a hablar los mudos (Simplification of the Alphabet and the Art of Teaching Mutes to Speak), in which he explained the Ramirez-de Leon technique.(Instruction)

1640

• In 1640, Pierre Moreau, a notary at Paris, had movable letters cast for the use of the blind, but for lack of means was unable to follow up his undertaking.

1644

• John Bulwer, 1614-1684, was English physician published his first two books in 1644 "The Natural Language of the Hand" and another called "The Art of Manual Rhetoric." He was convinced that the "language of the hand" was "the one language that was natural in all men especially for the deafened in the use of a manual alphabet." In 1648, Bulwer published his famous book title "The Deaf and Dumb Man's Friend." This was the first English book explaining "the subject of deafness and its accompanying language problems, but had no bearing on the actual teaching of Deaf persons."

1651

• Georg Harsdorffer in Germany produced tablets the blind could write on, and recommended the use of those tablets covered with a coat of wax, on which letters could be formed by means of a stylus.

1631 - 1687

• Padre Francesco Lana-Terzi, the Father of Aeronautics, the same Italian Jesuit who anticipated by more than a century the system of lip-reading for deaf mutes, also suggested, as an improvement on Cardano's invention for the blind, a guide consisting of a series of wires and strings arranged in parallel lines at equal distances from one another, to secure straight writing and uniformity of space between the lines. Besides this, Lana-Terzi describes, in his "Prodromo", an invention of his own, by which the blind may be taught to correspond with each other by a secret code. We have looked in vain in works of reference for any description of this cryptographic device. It is so simple that it can be learned in a few hours. Instead of compelling a blind person to learn how to form all the letters of the alphabet, the three methods pointed out by Lana-Terzi demand only a tactual knowledge of the letters, familiarity with their positions in their respective sections, and a little skill

1651

• Elizabeth Waldkirch was born in Geneva. She was a blind girl of remarkable intelligence, and her father and his friend, Jacques Bernouilli, the Swiss "savant," took a delight in teaching her. Bernouilli had the alphabet incised deeply on a thin wooden board; Elizabeth traced out the form of the letters with her finger, then with a pencil, and by this means learnt to work correctly on paper with a pencil and even with ink. She learnt to speak and write Latin, French, and German, and kept up a voluminous correspondence with her family and friends in all three languages. We are also told she played several instruments, the violin, the flute, and the organ, with a delightfully vague" etc." at the end of the list !

1680

• George Dalgarno, 1626-1687 - In 1680, Dalgarno published a book titled "The Deaf and Dumb Man's Tutor." In this book, he had many theories of the different ways of teaching language to the Deaf. He knew that the Deaf could be taught to speak and lipread, but he felt that using the manual alphabet was more practical. He advised mothers to spell out on their fingers and at the same time point to the object she was naming.

1690

• John Locke tried to distinguish between mental retardation and mental illness. (Classification)

1692

• Johamn Konrad Amman, 1698-1774, was a doctor of medicine, but was interested in trying to educate Deaf mutes. He only worked on youths between eight and fifteen years of age. He wanted his pupils to have "a good clear voice and to control it well." He learned that they "could feel the vibrations of his voice," he placed "their hands on his throat as he taught." He also had his pupils use mirrors in the speech practice. Lipreading was also part of the language achievement. He published two books, one in 1692 written in Latin and the other in 1700 called "A Dissertation Speech."

1760

• Abbé Charles-Michel de l Épée opened a public school for poor deaf children.(Placement)

• Jacobo Rodriguez Pereira, 1715-1780 - The greatest teacher of the Deaf in France. Pereira never had more than twelve pupils at one time. He offered two courses. "For the poorer and more numerous clients, he gave a short course of fifteen months which covered the current necessities for living." The wealthy and more intelligent stayed four or five years. They were given a superior course. These pupils became successful and famous. He was very secret about his work that even his family did not know his methods. When he died, no one knew how to continue his work. His motto was "There will be no more Deaf mutes. There will be Deaf speaking ones."

• Thomas Braidwood, 1715-1806 - "The most outstanding name in England, concerned with the education of the Deaf, was that of a Scotsman, Thomas Braidwood." He founded the first Britain school in 1760 as private academy for the Deaf in Edinburgh. The school moved to Hackney in London, England in 1783. In his school mean of communication until oral language could be established, he accepted natural gestures and signs, and recommended a two-hand alphabet which is still in use in England today. His grandson John Braidwood founded the first School for the Deaf in U.S.A. in 1812 in Cobb, Virginia but it was short-lived.

• J.F.L. Arnoldi, a German pastor, he taught lipreading speech, reading and writing. He believed in a natural approach to language teaching. He felt that children of ages four and five could learn faster and easier the articulation of speech but the "development of ideas were more rapid in ten and eleven year olds. His main goal was to teach reading to his pupils. "He described and published his methods in a book in the year of 1777."

1778

• Samuel Heinicke, 1727-1790 - Heinicke's methods were strictly oral. He strongly opposed using sign language. He got interested in the Deaf after meeting a young Deaf mute boy. After reading Amman's book "The Speaking Deaf", he started to teach the boy. Heinicke was very successful; the boy learned to speak, lipread and write. He was so pleased and he decided to teach other Deaf pupils to understand oral speech as well as written communication. In 1778, he opened the first Oral School for the Deaf in Germany. He is known as the "Father of the German method."

1782

• Abbe Roch Sicard, 1742-1822, was chosen by the Archbishop of Bordeaux to be trained by De L'Eppe to be a teacher of the Deaf and then appointed him director of the school. Sicard opened the school for the Deaf in Bordeaux, France in 1782. In 1792, the September Massacres of the French Revolution broke out and Sicard was imprisoned and almost lost his life. He was in hiding for two years but during that time wrote a book "Theory of Signs," an elaborate dictionary of signs.

1799

• Jean Marc Gaspard Itard started using intense sensory methods with Victor the Wild Boy of Aveyron, an apparently retarded boy who was found abandoned and living in the woods. (Instruction)

1817

• Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet organized the first special education program in the United States. Gallaudet's school – the American Asylum for the Education and Instruction of the Deaf - is now called the American School for the Deaf. (Placement)

1817

• Laurent Clerc, 1785-1869, was a Deaf student who studied under De L'Eppe and Sicard. He graduated from and taught at the Royal Institution for the Deaf in Paris. He met an American, Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. "Gallaudet had numerous opportunities to observe the brilliant work of Clerc, whom he called "a master teacher." Clerc accepted Gallaudet's offer to open the first School for the Deaf in the America. Clerc and Gallaudet arrived in the America and raised the needed funds to open a School for the Deaf. "In April 15, 1817, their mission was accomplished successfully and the first America School for the Deaf called First "Home" of Connecticut Asylum was established at Hartford, Connecticut. Clerc went on to become the most important influence on the education of the Deaf in the first half of the nineteenth century. His career as a teacher in America covered 41 years."

1829,1832

• Samuel Gridley Howe 1801-1876 began the Perkins Institute for the Blind. He taught a Deaf-blind child by means of the manual alphabet. Howe accompanied Horace Mann to Europe to visit the Deaf schools. In 1864, "Howe and other interested men petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for an act to incorporate an oral school for the Deaf in the state." "It was defeated through the influence of the school in Hartford." (Placement)

1837

• Horace Mann, 1796-1859, was a believer in state school. In 1837, he became secretary of the first Massachusetts school board. "Two years later, he brought about the opening of the first American Teacher's Training College at Lexington, Ky." He went to Europe to visit schools for the Deaf and was amazed to see how well Deaf children were lipreading and using speech in the German schools. Returning to America, he published a report of his findings. This interested parents who began to demand speech for their Deaf children.

1834

• Louis Braille developed a system of embossed dots for blind Individuals' use in reading and writing. (Instruction)

1837

• Eduard Seguin started extending Itard's procedures to teaching the mentally retarded. (Instruction)

1840

• Rhode Island passed the first state compulsory education law. (Law)

1840-80

• Dorothea Dix called attention to deplorable treatment of the mentally ill and established more humane mental hospitals. (Placement)

• Following his Introduction of embossed print for the blind, Valentine Huay proposed that the blind be taught to read by touch. In 1854 Huay adopted Braille's system of embossed dots. (Instruction)   

1856

• Amos Kendall, ?-1869 - "In 1856, Kendall wanted to found a small private school for the Deaf in Washington, D.C. made contact with the Gallaudets." The new school was called Kendall School and Edward M. Gallaudet, the younger son of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet was given charge of the new school. "After seven years, Congress refounded the school as Columbia Institution," with Gallaudet as the president. "In 1894, the preparatory department was named Kendall school, to retain the name of the original founder." The Institution was renamed Gallaudet College in honor of Thomas Hopkins Gallaudet. In 1864, this college became the first and only Institution of higher learning in the world exclusively for the Deaf.

• The first special class for retarded children was started in Germany. (Placement)

1864

• Gardines Green Hubbard, father of a daughter who was deafened by scarlet fever at the age of four. His daughter was tutored by a hearing teacher who taught her orally. In March 1864, "Hubbard, Howe and other interested men petitioned the Massachusetts General Court for an act to incorporate an Oral School for the Deaf in the state." "It was defeated through the influence of the school in Hartford." Hubbard did not give up, instead he gave financial support to open a private school with Harriet Rogers as a teacher. Although there were only eight pupils, the school served as an advertisement to the public, for many visitors came to see the accomplishments through oral education. In 1866, Hubbard again tried to get the Massachusetts legislature to pass the bill, but again was defeated. About this time, the Governor received a letter from John Clarke, a philanthropist offering $50,000 towards the establishment of an Oral School for the Deaf. "The Governor sent a message to the legislature urging to have an oral school under state jurisdiction. On March 16,1867, Deaf youngsters were invited to Mrs. Quincy's home for a demonstration. After the demonstration, the legislatures were pleased with it. They passed the bill. Harriet Rogers and her pupils moved to Northampton to organize the Clarke School for the Deaf in October, 1867.

1869

• Francis Galton published Hereditary Genius: An Inquiry into Its Laws and Consequences and followed this work with numerous treatises on measuring and developing intelligence.He, his students, and their students (e.g., Terman) taught that intelligence is inherited, fixed, and immutable and thus requires testing, selection, and eugenic planning. (Testing/Classification)

1886

• Anne Sullivan started working with Helen Keller and got her first breakthrough: Helen indicated that she had made the first association between physical and symbolic enti ties when Sullivan poured water over her hands and finger-spelled the word in her hands. (Instruction)
• The Elizabeth, New Jersey, schools adopted a multiple-track system in which pupils were grouped according to the rate they could progress through academic material. (Placement)

1890

• Maria Montessori began extending Seguin's work in teaching both retarded and normal children. (Instruction)

1890

• Alexander Graham Bell's development of the telephone and other sound equipment led to hearing aids and emphasis on amplifying sound in teaching speech to the deaf. (Instruction)

1890

• Sigmund Freud began to get attention for his assertions about psychological bases of mental illness (in contrast to physical bases).(Instruction)

1891

• The Cambridge Plan, whereby gifted pupils could progress through the first six grades in four years, was developed.(Placement)

1898

• Edward L. Thorndike started as an assistant professor at Teachers college, Columbia University. His work served as a base for the development of intelligence and achievement tests and for many procedures for teaching - especially for teaching reading. (Testing/Instruction)

1900

• Following Sigmund Freud's work, psychiatric conditions in children began to be recognized and described. (Classification)

1904

• The French Ministry of Education commissioned Alfred Binet and Théodore Simon to develop a test for identifying pupils as mentally deficient and transferring them to special classes. (Testing/Classification)

1910

• The American Association on Mental Deficiency extended the traditional classification system involving "idiot" and "imbecile" to include "moron." Subsequently, there were attempts to differentiate educational and residential programs for people at different levels of mental retardation. (Classification)

1910-15

• Psychologists criticized the Binet-Simon tests as being too narrow and for unfairly penalizing children with emotional and sensory problems and deprived backgrounds of experience.(Testing)

1911

• Special classes for gifted pupils were started in cities throughout the USA. (Placement)

• Alfred Binet and Theodore Simon revised their test and incorporated the concept of mental age, which they used to express a child's score in reference to age standards. (Testing)

1916

• Lewis Terman at Stanford University translated the Binet-Simon test and established United States norms for-what he called the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test. He revised the test in 1937 and 1960. New norms were established in 1972. (Testing)

1916

• Walter Lippmann and Lewis Terman engaged in a public debate about the roles of heredity and environment in intellectual development. (Testing)

1922

• The International Council for Exceptional Children was founded. It later became the Council for Exceptional Children. The CEC is the professional organization for special educators and others who serve handicapped people and gifted and talented people. Among its other missions, the CEC has served as a clearinghouse for information and ideas about exceptional people and as an advocate for securing exceptional individuals' rights. (Training/Law)

1925-35

• Sidney Pressey developed an array of ingenious and inexpensive services that were among the first teaching machines that were to be used in individualizing instruction. He based his procedures on a view of learning that emphasized the role of meaning in learning. His approach contrasted with Skinner's more mechanistic ideas that served as a basis for Programmed Instruction. (Instruction)

1928

• The National Society for the Study of Education devoted yearbooks to the roles of heredity and environment in intellectual development. (Testing)

1939

• David Wechsler produced the Wechsler-Bellevue Intelligence Scale, the forerunner of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale (1955) and his tests for children. (Testing)

1949

• David Wechsler produced the Wechsler Intelligence Scale for Children. (Testing)

1950

• The National Association for Retarded Citizens was organized primarily by parents of retarded individuals. The Association's purpose was to give mutual support and to advocate for retarded people's welfare. Subsequently. other parents formed similar advocacy groups, for example. the United Cerebral Palsy Association and the Association for Children with Learning Disabilities. (Law)

1954

• In 1954, a judgment was handed down in Brown v. Board of  Education of Topeka. Kansas.

1955

• Martha May Eliot, Chief of the Children's Bureau, identified children with mental retardation as a Title V program priority in her report to Congress in the mid-1950s. By 1955, services for people with mental retardation were a priority within the federal government.

1957

• The U.S. Office of Education started funding a number of programs for working with exceptional pupils. In the ensuing years. funds were used to support research on handicapped pupils and on gifted and talented pupils. Funds were also used to train teachers and counsellors to work with handicapped pupils and gifted and talented pupils. (Training)

1958

• Marie Jahoda published Current Concepts oj Positive Mental  Health. demonstrating that there is not one agreed on definition of mental health and mental illness. (Classification)

• The USSR launched Sputnik. the first orbiting space vehicle. Many in the United States reacted to this event by saying that our country trailed the USSR culturally. scientifically. Technologically  and militarily. They considered education the key to catching up. As a result. Congress allocated massive federal funds to the National Defense Education Act. The purpose was to train counsellors and teachers to identify and advise gifted and talented pupils and to teach them languages,mathematics, and the sciences. (Training/Law)

1961

• Congress added funds to support preparation of teachers of deaf children and youth. (Training/Law)

• In 1964. the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed. These two actions guaranteed equal protection in education for black students. The actions were important precedents for the litigation and legislation that guarantee~ handicapped pupils a free appropriate public education 1md an equal educational opportunity. (Law)

• -- P. L. 89-10, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA). Provided a comprehensive plan for readdressing the inequality of educational opportunity for economically underprivileged children. It became the statutory basis upon which early special education legislation was drafted.

• - P. L. 89-313, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1965. Authorized grants to state institutions and state operated schools devoted to the education of children with disabilities. It was the first Federal grant program specifically targeted for children and youth with disabilities.

• The Bureau for the Education of the Handicapped was organized within the U.S. Office of Education. It became a center for federal activities pertaining to the handicapped. (Law)

1966

• Burton Blatt and Fred Kaplan published Christmas in Purgatory: A Photographic Essay on Mental Retardation. This collection of pictures portrayed squalid and inhumane conditions in institutions for the retarded. The impact was emotionally devastating. The work was an important force leading to the deinstitutionalization movement. (Placement/Law)

1968

• Arthur Jensen reopened the controversy over the roles of heredity and environment in intellectual development.(Testing)

• -- P. L. 90-247, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1968. Final Federal special education legislation of the 1960s, established a set of programs that supplemented and supported the expansion and improvement of special education services. These programs later became known as discretionary.

1968

• After Lloyd Dunn spent years trying to get it published. Exceptional Children published his article. Special Education for the Retarded: Is Much of It Justifiable? In this essay. Dunn questioned the value- and perhaps the ethics – of assigning retarded pupils to special classes in the face of evidence indicating that retarded pupils in regular classes fared as well or better - than retarded pupils in special classes. This widely quoted essay served as one main impetus to the mainstreaming movement of the 1970s. (Placement/Law)

1969

• The Six Hour Retarded Child was published. Demonstrating that a person can be handicapped for one purpose (school activities) and non handicapped for another purpose (out-of school activities). (Classification)

• -- P. L. 91-230, The Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1970, which included Title VI, the Education of the Handicapped Act. Established a core grant program for local education agencies, now known as part B, and it authorized a number of discretionary programs.

1971

• Wyatt v. Stickney was adjudicated. revealing deplorable conditions in institutions and leading to the requirement that inmates must be either treated with appropriate procedures or released. (Placement)

1972

• Legal actions in Pennsylvania and in the District of Columbia initiated a national move to open and improve education for all exceptional pupils within the context of regular education to the fullest extent possible and with guarantees of due process and equal protection. The judgments were handed down in Mills v. the District of Columbia Board of Education and in the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children v. the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania. These judgments guaranteed handicapped pupils access to public education and other important rights. (Law)

1973

• The American Association on Mental Deficiency redefined The term "mental retardation," thus demonstrating the arbitrary nature of classification. The definitional shift reduced the incidence of mental retardation from about 3% to 1%. About eight million people previously labeled mentally retardedwere no longer so labeled. (Classification)

1973,

• Congress enacts - PL 93-112. The Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1973 This law guarantees handicapped people a free appropriate public education, protection against discrimination. access to public facilities and, more broadly, to education, and equal opportunity in employment. (Law)

1974

• - P. L. 93-280, The Education Amendments of 1974. Established two laws. One was the Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1974, which was the first to mention an appropriate education for all children with disabilities. It also reauthorized the discretionary programs. The second law, the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act, gave parents and students over the age of 18 the right to examine records kept in the student's personal file.

• P. L. 94-142, The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. Mandated a free appropriate public education for all children with disabilities, ensured due process rights, and mandated IEPs and LRE. As such, it is the core of Federal funding for special education. This law was passed in 1975 and went into effect in October of 1977 when the regulations were finalized.

• The court ruled in Mattie T. v. Holladay. one of the first law suits seeking relief under Section 504 of PL 93-112. The judgment mandated that the law must be implemented without delay - that pupils must be given a free appropriate public education and an equal educational opportunity. (Law)

1979

• Judge Peckham in Larry P. v. Riles declared a moratorium on California's using intelligence tests for classifying pupils as mentally retarded and placing them in special classes. He declared that intelligence tests are racially and culturally biased and violate rights and protections guaranteed pupils by the federal Constitution and laws. (Testing, Classification Placement, Law)

1979-80

• The Office of Education in the U.S. Department of Health, Education, and Welfare became a separate federal department - the U.S. Department of Education. At this time, the Bureau for the Education of the Handicapped was combined with the Rehabilitation Services Administration and became the Office of  Special Education and Rehabilitation. (Training)

1980

• The target date set by the U.S. Commissioner of Education for full educational opportunities to be available to all handicapped youngsters.

• P. L. 98-199, The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1983. Reauthorized the discretionary programs, established services to facilitate school to work transition through research and demonstration projects; established parent training and information centers; and provided funding for demonstration projects and research in early intervention and early childhood special education.

• -- P. L. 99-457, The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986. Mandated services for preschoolers and established the Part H program to assist states in the development of a comprehensive, multidisciplinary, and statewide system of early intervention services for infants.

• -- P. L. 101-476, The Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1990. Renamed the law the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. It reauthorized and expanded the discretionary programs, mandated transition services, defined assistive technology devices and services, and added autism and traumatic brain injury to the list of categories of children and youth eligible for special education and related services.

• -- P. L. 102-119, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1992. Primarily addressed the Part H (Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities) Program.

• - P. L. 105-17, The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997. The reauthorization of IDEA was viewed as an opportunity to review, strengthen, and improve IDEA to better educate children with disabilities and enable them to achieve a quality education. Congress sought to achieve this by:
• Strengthening the role of parents;
• Ensuring access to the general curriculum and reforms;
• Focusing on teaching and learning while reducing unnecessary paper work requirements;
• Assisting educational agencies in addressing the costs of improving special education and related services to children with disabilities;
• Giving increased attention to racial, ethnic, and linguistic diversity to prevent inappropriate identification and mislabeling;
• Ensuring schools are safe and conducive to learning; and
• Encouraging parents and educators to work out their differences by using non adversarial means.

• -H.R.1, also known as the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, is supposedly an updated version of the 1965 Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA). The bill, which passed by large margins in both the House and the Senate. While the bill primarily addresses the issue of accountability in schools and help for needy students, elements of the bill and discussion on the Hill also touched on issues related to autism and the disability community.