Evolution of Assistive Technology Laws Part 2

Lets skip forward two years ahead of the Tech Act to 1990 when PL 94-142 was reauthorized and changed.  PL 94-142 looked different than it had previously and it was given a new name "Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)."  This act introduced a very important piece that is integral to those of us special educators who will be working in the high school setting.  This piece is called an Individual Transition Plan (ITP).  The ITP is a plan for transitioning students from high school to adult life (whether that be college or work).  So, this gave added a new age group to the services, and now assistive technology (AT) was able to be used for them.

In 1997, IDEA was reauthorized and said that all students had to take the district and state tests.  It also required that more students be educated in the general education classroom for at least some part of the day.  So now students with disabilities were going to be educated in the general education classroom, so AT was required to help them succeed.

In 1998, the Assistive Technology Act of 1998 ended the Tech Act.  It required that states get grants in order to help them give AT services and AT devices to students with disabilities.

In 2004, the Assistive Technology Act was reauthorized.  In this act, it sort of did away with AT services, it required that all states just give AT to students and not just create services that would give AT.  It basically made the process much cleaner, because before the school district had to create services for devices for students.  The service had to assess the student with a disability and decide whether or not they needed AT and then had to assess what AT should be used if it was decided that it was needed.  Now, they did away with this services idea and are just giving AT to students.

Finally, in 2004, the reauthorization of IDEA happened again.  This time, they decided to limit the AT.  It was not considered AT if the device was surgically implanted.  So, school districts do not have to pay for cochlear implants or the replacement of cochlear implants.

So, we are done with our journey which started with Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and ended with IDEA of 2004.  We still have a long way to go, and I am excited to see how far we will go.  Here is what I see when I look at this.  The Assistive Technology Act of 1998 was after two subsequent reauthorizations of IDEA which seems to be the catalyst for all AT laws.