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December 1, 2025
Fifty years after IDEA transformed education for students with disabilities, Dr. Lisa Thomas explores its history, current challenges, and the actions we must take to protect its future.
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Note: This blog is part of a three-part series. Be sure to check out the companion pieces here and here.
On Nov. 29, 1975, the United States took a historic step. President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act into law. Today, we know it as the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA. For the first time in history, children with disabilities were guaranteed a free appropriate public education in public schools across the nation. Before IDEA, more than a million children were denied access to public education altogether, and millions more were relegated to classrooms or institutions that denied them meaningful instruction and human dignity.
IDEA did not just change the law. It changed lives. And now, 50 years later, its promises—and its future—demand our attention.
IDEA began as an amendment to the Education for All Handicapped Children Act and strengthened the disability rights framework established by the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. The law guaranteed three cornerstone protections that have shaped generations of students and their families:
These provisions ensure that children with disabilities are not segregated, excluded or overlooked—and that their rights are enforceable through due process and family engagement.
IDEA is divided into two major parts that support students across the educational continuum:
In the 2022–23 school year, more than 7.5 million students received special education services under IDEA. More than two-thirds were in general education classrooms for 80 percent or more of the school day, proof that inclusion is not a theory but a daily practice made possible through IDEA.
These services reach far beyond K-12. Students with disabilities continue to depend on IDEA in their transition to postsecondary education, where they are entitled to accommodations in assessments, access to support programs, and protections under additional regulations like Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act.
IDEA has never been immune to political pressure. In the 1980s, the Reagan administration attempted to dilute its protections, prompting national protests led by disability rights leaders like Patrisha Wright and Evan Kemp Jr. Their efforts stopped the rollback.
In 2025, under the Trump administration, nearly all staff in the Office of Special Education Programs, which is responsible for monitoring IDEA compliance, were targeted for dismissal. A federal judge blocked the move, but the threat was clear: Dismantling federal enforcement of disability rights is not a hypothetical risk. It is an active, ongoing effort.
The political lesson is simple. IDEA exists today because people organized, resisted and refused to accept policies that discounted disabled lives. Its future requires the same vigilance.
When IDEA was passed, Congress committed to covering up to 40 percent of the additional cost of educating students with disabilities. That has never happened. In 2024, federal funding covered approximately 11 percent. The shortfall forces states and local districts, which are already stretched thin, to fill the gap. The result is uneven implementation, rationed services, and inequity that places the burden on families and educators instead of the system meant to support them.
Fifty years after IDEA, disability rights are not only under threat in law and policy but also in language and culture. The word “retarded,” removed from federal vocabulary and widely acknowledged as a slur, has returned to public conversation, from political leaders to social media influencers, and millions have repeated it online. Social listening research shows that more than two-thirds of posts about people with intellectual disabilities contain negative language or slurs.
The return of the r-word is not random. It is part of a larger normalization of dehumanization—an erosion of empathy that makes legal rollbacks easier and cultural exclusion more acceptable.
If the r-word reflects regression, then we must reclaim the r-words that remind us of our shared responsibility. As IDEA turns 50, here are the r-words we need now:
Reflect on where we were before IDEA and what we stand to lose if we are not vigilant.
Refrain from using or tolerating harmful or demeaning language about people with disabilities.
Require accountability from schools, workplaces, policymakers and platforms that perpetuate exclusion.
Run for something. Join a school board. Volunteer on a disability rights advisory council. File public comment on policy changes.
Respect the dignity, skill and contributions of children, youth and adults with disabilities—not as a courtesy but as a commitment.
Resist political and cultural efforts to dismantle IDEA, defund public education, or roll back civil and educational rights.
Rest, because the work is long and the movement is shared. We honor progress when we protect our energy and each other.
IDEA is one of the most successful federal civil rights laws in history. Millions of students have entered classrooms, colleges, careers and communities that once shut them out. But anniversaries are not just markers. They are moments to recommit.
The next 50 years of IDEA depend on how we respond today. They depend on whether we reflect, resist and recommit—together.
Read now on AFT.org, IDEA at 50: Advancing equity, access and opportunity for every child.
In this collection, you will find resources to help students better understand different disabilities, promote inclusion, challenge ableism, and make accommodations for others.
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