Abstract
Compared to the common school championed by Horace Mann in the 1800s — which provided free universal education to children — special education is a relatively new institution in the United States, having only been mandated by federal law in 1975 with the passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975. While some schools and institutions existed in the 1900s for disabled students, states historically repeatedly upheld the exclusion of these children despite compulsory education laws (Yell, Rogers, and Rogers 1998). The right for disabled students to attend public school grew out of the civil rights movement, spurred on