IDEA

IDEA Law

NICHCY is pleased to connect you with authoritative sources of information on our nation's special education law, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act--commonly referred to as IDEA. Since IDEA was most recently amended in December 2004, you may hear the law also referred to as IDEA 2004. (The prior version of the law is typically referred to as IDEA '97, since that version was passed in 1997.)

• To view or download a copy of IDEA 2004, as passed by Congress and signed by the President in December 2004 (called the statute), we are pleased to connect you with a PDF version and the text-only version. Pick your poison!
  
  
  • The "slip law" is the Public Law (P.L.) print of P.L. 108-446, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004. It's available in PDF format and is 162 pages long. We're pleased to offer the PDF file online at NICHCY, at:
    www.nichcy.org/reauth/PL108-446.pdf
  
  
  
  • And a text-only version of the law:
    http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/query/z?c108:h.1350.enr:
    
    
  
  

What about final regulations for the new law?
Yes, indeed, we have them! As of August 2006, the final regulations for IDEA 2004 are available to guide implementation of the law. Visit our final regulations page, read all about it, and connect with the regs and other commentaries.

What's new or different in the 2004 law?
To read commentaries and analyses of what reauthorization has changed about IDEA, please visit our NICHCY Connections to...Resources on IDEA 2004 page.

Any training materials available?
NICHCY is the midst of producing Building the Legacy, a 19-module training curriculum on IDEA. Have a look at what's available so far.

Want to catch up on the history of this latest reauthorization?
Please visit our Latest Scoop! page, where we documented the law's progress toward reauthorization from February 2003 to April 2005.

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