Legal Rights of Students with Disabilities - Essay Example

IDEA has widely been regarded as essential educational stitch that not only provides legal protections to the students with disabilities but also talks about the rights of their parents to seek education for their children across United States. From time to time, some amendments were also implemented to the act. At present, it works along with the No Child Left behind Act to assure that all the children in United States will get access to free appropriate education (U.S. Department of Education, 2006).

Six Basic Components of Original IDEA 1975 The original IDEA comprised of six basic and key components that are essential to be understood for understanding the soul of the act. The first component of IDEA is free appropriate public education that assures that all the children with disabilities eligible for special education, will also be entitled to a free appropriate public education (FAPE). This principle also clarify that regardless of the severity of disability all the children requiring special education would be “identifies, located and evaluated” (IDEA, 1975). . The third component of IDEA is individual education program (IEP) that works to assure the provision of appropriate and individualized services to the students with disabilities on the basis of the current evaluation information.

The forth component is Least Restricted Environment where IDEA guarantees that the children with disabilities could be provided with free appropriate public education in least restricted environment and disabled children would be considered to be placed in the general education classrooms. The fifth component is parent and student participation in decision making. This principle is meant to reinforce the belief that disabled children could be provided with appropriate education more effectively if the parents actively participate in the process.

The parents and the students are required to play active role in each and every step of education. The parents and students are invited to every IEP meeting to encourage their participation in the process. The sixth component of IDEA is procedure and safeguard that defends the rights of the students and their parents involved in the program. It clarifies that the parents have the right to view the records of their children and they could also seek independent opinion about their child. The student is also assured of his rights even if his parents or guardians are not known.

Without the completion of the evaluation process, the schools are strictly prohibited to make any changes in the instructions and education program for the children at their own so that the students could stay in unchanged environment during the evaluation period. IDEA Reauthorizations IDEA has gone through phases of changes with the intention of