Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Statutory Provisions and Selected Issues

Publication Date: January 2002

Publisher: Library of Congress. Congressional Research Service

Author(s):

Research Area: Education

Type:

Abstract:

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is both a grants statute and a civil rights statute. It provides federal funding for the education of children with disabilities and requires, as a condition for the receipt of such funds, the provision of a free appropriate public education (FAPE). The statute also contains detailed due process provisions to ensure the provision of FAPE. Originally enacted in 1975, the act responded to increased awareness of the need to educate children with disabilities and to judicial decisions requiring that states provide an education for children with disabilities if they provided an education for children without disabilities.

IDEA has been amended several times, most recently and most comprehensively by the 1997 IDEA reauthorization, P.L. 105-17, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997. The 1997 reauthorization was the result of years of congressional debate and its final version was crafted by a bipartisan and bicameral working group. P.L. 105-17 placed many former regulatory requirements into the statute in order to make the requirements of IDEA more accessible and also added substantive changes. Among the key features of the 1997 IDEA reauthorization are expanded procedures for the discipline of disabled students, new state and substate allocation formulas, and emphasis on educational results.

Congress is presently examining IDEA again. The purpose of this report is to summarize the provisions of all four parts of IDEA�Parts A through D and to discuss selected issues, especially regarding selected provisions of Part B�the most often discussed part of the act. Part A contains the general provisions, including the purposes of the Act and definitions. Part B contains provisions relating to the education of school aged and preschool children and includes the funding formula, provisions relating to evaluations, eligibility determinations, individual education programs (IEPs) and educational placements. It also contains detailed requirements for procedural safeguards as well as withholding of funds and judicial review. It is Part B's procedural safeguards that are sometimes referred to as IDEA's discipline provisions although they cover situations besides discipline. Part C concerns infants and toddlers with disabilities while Part D contains the requirements for various national activities designed to improve the education of children with disabilities. This report will not be updated.