Origins of a Free Appropriate Public Education

The 1958 The Captioned Films Act, Public Law 85-905 and the Professional Personnel Act of 1959, Public Law 86-158, increased the types and amount of training individuals received in learning how to educate children with mental retardation. The Elementary and Secondary Education Act, PL 92-424, and State School's Act, PL 89- 313, were both passed by Congress in 1965 which gave states grant assistance for educating children with disabilities.
In the 1971 court case Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC), 343 Fed. Supp. 279, v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania the court decided that a state could not deny, put off, or end any intellectually disabled student's access to a public education. The decision was reached after the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania was sued by The Pennsylvania Board of Education, thirteen school districts, and the state's secretaries of education and public welfare. The ruling determined that education should be viewed as a continuous process, focused not only on academics, but on teaching individuals how to handle their surroundings.

In Mills v. Board of Education of District of Columbia, 348 F. Supp. 866 n a group of students labeled mentally retarded, emotionally disturbed, and hyperactive by DC public schools filed a civil action suit against DC public schools after being denied admission into the public school system without due process, as entitled to them within the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The courts reversed the school's ruling and declared that all children, regardless of their physical, mental, or emotional disability within the District of Columbia were entitled to a free and publicly sanctioned education.