Overview

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Amendments of 1997, Public Law 105-17, are the fifth set of amendments to the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, better known as EHA or Public Law 94-142.  EHA was passed in 1975, went into effect in 1977, and has brought a world of change to the activities of our schools, and most particularly, to the lives of children with disabilities and their families.

The Six Principles

The IDEA organized around six central principles threading powerfully through the law and underpinning the rights that children with disabilities and their families have and the way in which schools plan, deliver, and evaluate the special education services they deliver to these children.  These principles are:

• free appropriate public education (FAPE),
• appropriate evaluation
• individualized education program
• least restrictive environment
• parent and student participation in decision making, and
• procedural safeguards