History of Special Education The recent history of special education begins in 1975 when Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA). The law was renamed IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education act) in 1990. These laws made it mandatory for schools to accommodate the special needs of all students. Special education existed before 1975, but in most cases much differently than it does today. Special education in its earliest form usually occurred in the parents' home, in a one-on-one setting. The reason for this was that people with disabilities usually did not venture far from their homes. In the early days of our country, most schools consisted of one or two classrooms with usually only one teacher. This teacher was not trained and did not have the time to meet the needs of an individual with a disability. For this reason, parents kept their disabled child at home, either without teaching or with a private tutor. The best example of this would be Anne Sullivan with Helen Keller. From keeping disabled people at home, the next step was institutions, although I'm not sure you could classify this as special education as very little education was actually done. The main purpose of these institutions was to protect these individuals from society, and society from these individuals, very rarely would an individual leave an institution once placed in one. Everyone can remember seeing horror movies that centered around a mental asylum, these are the types of institutions they were. Even the name asylum suggests that the patients were outside of intervention, although this was not always the case. Ultimately, instead of placing individuals in institutions, they were… middle of paper… overtime, making a difference whether or not that child needs intervention during his or her regular school years. Special education has been around for a long time, but it hasn't been until the passage of IDEA that the field has truly grown to accommodate all students with special needs. Identification of disabilities, while not an exact science, has improved significantly. The services provided are better than ever. The number and quality of special education teachers are better than ever, although more work needs to be done in this area. Yes, there are still things to learn in the field of special education, but considering its origins, the future seems bright. Works Cited Congress, 1. (2004). PL108-446. 4. Heward, W. L. (2009). Exceptional children: An introduction to special education. Columbus: Pearson