Special Needs Children Before 1979

In 1975 and 1979 Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), which established the right to education for students with disabilities. Prior to that special education was spotty, dependent upon what the local school board deemed necessary or were capable of doing.

I remember—and let me place this memory: It was pre-school, meaning I wasn’t enrolled yet in kindergarten. My brother was likely at the high end of elementary school. We lived in Washington Township between Kettering and Centerville; we all attended Driscoll Elementary (built 1962), a school still in use today. In the year book, categorized by grade level, there was a section where the students seemed older (but, let’s be honest, looking at students from the past they ALL look older than today’s students!!) and didn’t seem to fit any particular grade level. I asked my older brother Steve who these kids were. He told me they were in a special education class. What’s that? But I didn’t need to ask, I could see it in their faces, their distanced smiles, something seemed different, blurred. It might have taken me a few more years and questions to understand.

I see now how progressive the school system was to educate children with disabilities and, to be fair, none of these students were ambulatory or in wheelchairs.

I remember gazing into the eyes and faces of these kids. I might have felt a certain sense of gratitude, an awareness that they/I was different, and, perhaps, wondering about their life. Wondering now with the current administration’s attempts to dismantle the Dept. of Education—what will happen to today’s special needs students.

me first day of kindergarten

my sister first day of kindergarten