ADA, IDEA, Section 504, and ESSA

What is ADA?
The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individual with disabilities in ALL areas of public life. This includes jobs, schools, transportation and all public and private places that are open to the general public. The purpose of this law was to give individuals with disabilities access to employment opportunities, public services on a state and local government level, public accommodations and services, and telecommunications. The two key principles of this law include protection from discrimination and general access.

What is IDEA?
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) provides all students with a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) regardless if they have a disability or not. Part B services under IDEA are available to children with disabilities from age 3-21. Part C services under IDEA are available for children from birth to 2 years 11 months. To be eligible for services under IDEA, the child must have one of the thirteen specified disabilities mentioned in the law. 

What is Section 504?
Section 504 is just one section in the Rehabilitation Act which is a civil rights law. This section covers all children who are not covered and protected under IDEA. In the school setting, students would be eligible for a 504 plan that offers accommodations to provide the needed extra support in the general education classroom, if they are not eligible for services under IDEA. The Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) expanded and broadened the rights under Section 504 to prohibit discrimination for individuals in all agencies and businesses.

What is ESSA?
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) replaced the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB). This is a main education law that was created to provide every student in every state with a quality education by holding each states more responsible for how they were educating their students. 

Why is knowing and understanding these laws important when working with children, students, and families?
As a future special education teacher, I need to know and understand these laws so I provide each of my students with specialized and unique education to meet their individualized needs. As an educator, these laws will impact everything I do in the classroom, talking with administrators or parents of students. Since I will be the expert in my field for the whole school it is up to me to know and understand what these laws are and how they impact my position. I will also need to know and understand these laws to answer questions from parents who are not as familiar with the laws and the rights they have under these laws. 

HIPAA and FERPA

Hello again! It has been awhile since I have posted anything on my blog. To recap, I am currently a student at Brigham Young University-Idaho (BYU-I), and will graduate December 2020 with a Bachelor of Science in Special Education.

As a new semester has started this week, I have been asked to share my thoughts on topics I have been learning and studying each week. This week I have studied two important privacy acts known as HIPAA (The Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act) and FERPA (The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act). These are some of the laws that many have heard about or are very familiar with if you work in a medical or educational field.

The question posed this week was, "Why is knowing and understanding these laws important when working with children, students and families?".

Both of these laws have to deal with the privacy, access and security of either medical or educational records. As a future educator, it is very important for me to know and understand these laws because I will be working with children of all ages with different disabilities. It is important for me to know and understand these laws to make sure that I guard and keep all medical and educational records private and secure so I don't get in trouble and penalized. Not only is it important to do but it is also the law so there is no excuse for not implementing the set procedures in the classroom. Abiding by these laws also increases trust and strengthens the relationship between educators or medical personnel and students, children and their families. Without these laws, I think that people would be more judgmental and discriminatory towards others because they would have access to all their information to laugh at or make fun of. These laws provide that much needed element of privacy and security so individuals can keep their educational and medical records private.