The Education for all Handicapped Children Act of 1975 PL 94-142: Its History, Origins, and Concepts

Abstract

In November of 1975 the Congress of the United States passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (PL 94-142) and thereby mandated that all school-aged handicapped children in the United States were to have available to them a “free, appropriate public education” by September 1, 1978. To accomplish this the Congress also prescribed a set of minimum standards that were to be followed by state and local education agencies to insure that such an education was indeed being provided. The purpose of this particular article is twofold. First, it will provide an account of the basic tenets of the law, its origins, and its legislative history. Second, it will describe a number of the minimum standards established by this act that directly relate to and impact upon the education of handicapped children.