Students With Disabilities In Education Between 1970 And 1970

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Prior to the mid-1970s, students with disabilities of any kind (mental health problems included) were inadequately served or overtly excluded from public education (Martin, Martin, & Terman, 1996). Students with severe physical or emotional disabilities were simply not allowed to attend school. In 1970, PL 91 -230, or the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA), was passed marking the first law that exclusively addressed students with disabilities. Under the EHA, grants were offered to institutions to develop programs to train teachers who could teach students with disabilities (Martin, Martin, & Terman, 1996).
The EHA was amended in 1974 after the landmark court cases PARC (PARC v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 1972) and Mills (Mills v. Board