Landmark Cases

Landmark Cases
Name:
Institution:
Landmark Cases
Introduction
One cannot decline to note that the nature and perception of public education in the United States took a major turn in the year 1975, with the passing of the "Individuals with Disability Education Act" (IDEA). This piece of legislation upheld that all children (including the disabled) had a right to free and appropriate public education… to the greatest possible extent and in general education classrooms. In other words, they would have access to public education in the least restrictive school environments, same as their normal peers. Prior to the inception of this law, many disabled children in the United States failed to realize any meaningful acceptance and or support in public schools (Friend & Cook, 2005).
The Landmark Cases
It is important to note that a number of cases have been heard in the United States in the past in regards to segregation and or discrimination of minority groups of people (including the disabled) from placement in general and appropriate education placement. For this reason, there has been experienced a noteworthy progression of enhancement and realization of the rights of these groups of people. This paper discusses two major landmark cases on the subject matter that have been heard in the united states in the past.
One landmark case to consider in this regard is the 1954 Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. Herein, the United States Supreme Court (basing on the 14th Amendment) held that it is against the law to discriminate against any group of people, and that the ideology of "separate-but-equal" educational amenities for school-going children of different groupings was nothing short of inequitable and illegal at the same time (Margo & Thomas, 2010). As such, segregated schooling units were against realization of equality by the American people overall. On account of this, the case ruling paved the way for children with disability to join conventional classrooms and schools for the sake of receiving general appropriate education. All the same, it is important to note that this case in point focused more on aspects of race or color as compared to other vulnerabilities existent at the time, even though it gradually came to apply to the case of disability (Osgood, 2005).
Another case is that of Pennsyl...