[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 189 (Wednesday, November 29, 1995)]
[Senate]
[Page S17823]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        20TH ANNIVERSARY OF IDEA

  Mr. KENNEDY. Mr. President, today marks the 20th anniversary of the 
Education for All Handicapped Children Act, now known as the 
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). I was proud to 
serve on the committee that approved IDEA in 1975, and I am proud of 
its successes in the past two decades.
  For millions of children with disabilities, IDEA has meant the 
difference between exclusion and participation, between dependence and 
independence, between lost potential and learning.
  Before IDEA was enacted in 1975, young people with disabilities were 
often shut away and condemned to life without hope. In 1975, 4 million 
handicapped children did not receive the help they needed to succeed in 
school--either because their disabilities were undetected or because 
schools did not offer the services they needed. Virtually no disabled 
preschoolers received services. A million school-aged children with 
disabilities were excluded from public school.
  Now, as a result of IDEA, every State in the Nation offers a free 
appropriate public education to the 5 million children with 
disabilities, and provides early intervention services to infants and 
toddlers with disabilities.
  In the early 1970's, 95,000 children with disabilities lived in 
institutional settings. Today, fewer than 6,000 are institutionalized.
  Only 33 percent of people with disabilities who grew up before IDEA 
were competitively employed within 5 years after leaving school. Today, 
nearly 60 percent of young men and women with disabilities become 
productive, taxpaying members of society.
  In some respects, as we know, IDEA has fallen short. Too many 
students with disabilities drop out of school and have a high risk of 
unemployment. Some get in trouble with the law and spend a significant 
amount of time in jail. Enrollment of students with disabilities in 
college is still too low.
  We need to be more vigilant in our mission to make sure that all 
these children grow up with the skills they need to get a job and live 
independently.
  Legislation to reauthorize IDEA will be considered by Congress in the 
coming months, and I look forward to working closely with colleagues on 
both sides of the aisle to achieve these important goals. The best way 
for all of us to honor the law's success is to rededicate ourselves to 
making it even more effective in the future.

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