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Moving from the educational realm to the legal, this section attempts to analyze students’ rights under two federal statutes, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Basically these statutes were enacted to contend with insidious discrimination against people with disabilities. IDEA and Section 504 provide comprehensive educational rights to children with disabilities. Ordover and Boundy (1996) state that these statutes are not the only source of students’ rights and protections. They state, the educational rights of children with disabilities are also shaped by their constitutional rights to equal protection of the laws and due process, civil rights statutes prohibiting discrimination on the basis of race and sex, federal statutes providing equal educational opportunity to limited English proficient students, certain basic guarantees to homeless students, and quality programming to youth in vocational education and to emotionally disadvantaged students participating in compensatory education programs (p. v). The authors caution the reader to make certain that they understand the IDEA and Section 504 regulations in accordance with their state’s statutes, regulations, and judicial decisions regarding the educational rights of children with disabilities. |
Education Law