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50 Years of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Before IDEA, there was no measure of whether students with disabilities were receiving an appropriate education. But there is much more the law can accomplish.
Diverse group of children with their heads touching looking down.

Jean Crockett knows very well how the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) transformed life for students with disabilities. When she was an elementary school teacher in the 1970s, she had a student who was non-verbal and would make loud vocal sounds during reading time.

“Fortunately, it was 1978, and the regulations in IDEA came into effect,” Crockett says. She referred her student to the school psychologist, who placed the student in a class where he received the support he needed.

Before IDEA, there was no measure of whether students with disabilities were receiving an appropriate education—if they were in school at all, says Crockett, now a professor emerita of special education at the University 
of Florida.

But that all changed when the Education for All Handicapped Children Act was signed into law in 1975 (it would be renamed IDEA in 1990). The law mandated that students with disabilities would not be turned away from their public school.

While the law was transformative for students with disabilities and their families, and ushered in a new era of inclusion in public schools, the full potential of the law has never been reached. 

Will We Move Forward or Backward?

From the start, IDEA stated that the federal government will pay up to 40 percent of the average per pupil cost for special education students. But the federal contribution has never come close to that—it’s currently just 12 percent.

Two Trump administration proposals could make the situation even worse.

In the administration’s efforts to dismantle the Department of Education, it has cut more than 1,400 employees and proposed that IDEA be managed by the Health and Human Services agency, which has no experience protecting the rights of students with disabilities.

Trump’s stated intention is to “move education back to the states” by converting formula grants into block grants—with little to no federal oversight. This would make it much less likely that IDEA funding will reach the students it was intended to help.

“States would not have to answer to anyone about whether they are following the law,” says Tom Zembar, NEA’s education policy and practice manager.

“As a result, students in some states could receive needed services while students in others receive none,” he says.

NEA has taken legal action to block the destruction of the Department of Education and supports a bipartisan push in Congress to fully fund IDEA. Read on to find out how you can help.  

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IDEA: Important, Imperfect, and Imperiled


Students Served
7.5 MILLION
That’s how many students received special education services through public schools in the 2022 – 2023 school year—about 15 percent of all public school students.

Federal Funding Promise
40 PERCENT
When IDEA passed 50 years ago, the federal government committed to pay 40 percent of the average per student cost for every special education student. It has never met that commitment.

Actual Federal Funding 
12 PERCENT
The federal share of the average per student cost was under 12 percent in 2025, the smallest share since 2000.

Funding Shortfall 
$38.66 BILLION
That’s how much states and districts across the country had to cover in the 2024 – 2025 school year, because the federal government fell so short on funding IDEA.
  

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The National Education Association (NEA), the nation's largest professional employee organization, is committed to advancing the cause of public education. NEA's 3 million members work at every level of education—from pre-school to university graduate programs. NEA has affiliate organizations in every state and in more than 14,000 communities across the United States.