This story is free to read because readers choose to support LAist. If you find value in independent local reporting, make a donation to power our newsroom today. Fifty years ago, just after ...

When the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was signed into law in 1975, it was a groundbreaking piece of legislation. For the first time, students with disabilities were guaranteed ...

Left: Ed Martin was one of the authors of the law now known as IDEA. Before the law, children with disabilities were often turned away from public schools. "They were invisible," says Martin. Right: ...

Fifty years ago, just after Thanksgiving of 1975, President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, the landmark law that created special education as it exists today, and ...