An Unfinished Journey:

Right to Education

In Brown v. Board of Education, the U.S. Supreme Court held in 1954 that separate education for African American children was not an equal education, setting an important precedent for an integrated public education for all. It would take nearly 20 years for this precedent to be applied to children with disabilities nationwide.

Relying on Brown, in 1971 the Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (P.A.R.C.) filed a class action lawsuit, P.A.R.C. v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, on behalf of children who had been denied access to public education. The federal court struck down local laws that excluded children with disabilities from schools and held that children with disabilities have the right to a public education.

Congress followed the court's lead in 1975 with the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (later renamed IDEA), which provided for a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment and individualized education programs for children with disabilities.  

Implementing Brown in Minnesota

Minnesota made some early progress in ensuring that some students with disabilities received a public education. In 1956, a task force created by the Minnesota State Legislature made recommendations that were passed by the 1957 Legislature to require public schools to provide services to "educable" children with many types of disabilities. But this education was provided in segregated settings.

Photo of Minnesota Governor Elmer L. Andersen.

Reflecting on these developments, Minnesota Governor Elmer L. Andersen observed:

"[W]e live in a country that's dedicated to the idea that every child, every person has potential. Every person is equal. Every person is due the respect and confidence of others. And given the tools they can accomplish a great deal, and history is full of stories of those with disabilities that have overcome them in wonderful ways and had great impact for good on civilization … It took the federal government until '71 to get anything like a special education program going, where Minnesota was in the vanguard of the states in 1957."

In 1972, after the P.A.R.C. decision, the Minnesota State Legislature expanded the right to education to all children with disabilities. The 1975 federal law finally desegregated that education for children with disabilities.

Stock Photo: Four children carrying backpacks are walking down a school hallway next to a child using a wheelchair being pushed by a young woman.

Link to https://mn.gov/mnddc/past/videoclips/elmer-andersen.html