ABSTRACT
In 1975, Congress passed the first bill for children with disabilities, called the Education for all Handicapped Children Act (which has subsequently been renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act: IDEA 2004). However, in its initial version, in adopting the Act many of the state public educational systems excluded children with physical disabilities and impairments (deaf, blind, or physically handicapped), learning disabilities, and emotional disabilities from special education services. In 2003, approximately 6 million children, roughly 13 percent of all school-aged children, were receiving some form of special education services (U.S. Department of Education: Digest of Education Statistics, 2003).
