Whether you’re a teacher, administrator, or curriculum leader, embracing the legal foundations of special education empowers you to make more informed decisions and better serve your students. In this blog, we’ll explore how three foundational laws shape classroom practice and how tools like TeachTown can help schools not only meet legal requirements but also improve student outcomes.
There are three key federal laws that guide how schools serve students with disabilities: Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Each plays a unique but interconnected role in ensuring access, equity, and appropriate services.
IDEA is the most comprehensive of the three laws.
According to the U.S. Department of Education, IDEA is
“a law that makes available a free appropriate public education to eligible children with disabilities throughout the nation and ensures special education and related services to those children, supports early intervention services for infants and toddlers and their families, and awards competitive discretionary grants.”
Here are some of the most important principles of IDEA for special educators and administrators to consider.
FAPE means that students with disabilities are entitled to a free, personalized education program that helps them make meaningful progress at no cost to the family. The Supreme Court case Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District raised the bar in 2017, clarifying that “some” progress isn’t enough. An IEP must be reasonably calculated to enable progress in light of the student’s unique circumstances. In other words, quality matters. Instruction, curriculum access, and data-driven decisions are now part of what the law expects.
Under IDEA, students with disabilities must be educated alongside their typically developing peers to the maximum extent appropriate. Inclusion isn’t optional; it’s the legal default.
Schools must offer the support and services needed to help students succeed in general education settings before considering more restrictive placements such as self-contained classrooms or separate schools. Importantly, the decision to move a student to a more restrictive environment must be individualized and based on the student’s needs, not on their disability category, the availability of programs, or the school’s resource limitations.
Under IDEA, every student who qualifies for special education services must have an IEP. At the heart of the IEP are the annual goals, which guide the student’s educational program and help prioritize instruction. They provide a framework for tracking progress over time and ensure accountability for whether the student is making appropriate gains. Each goal must be specific and measurable, aligned with the student’s present levels of performance, and connect directly to documented needs. They must also be achievable within a year, and ambitious yet realistic, given the student’s current abilities and supports.
IEP teams must regularly review and revise these goals based on data. If a student isn’t making expected progress, adjustments must be made to instruction, supports, or even the goals themselves.
Schools have a legal duty to identify and evaluate all students who may have disabilities. Delays or denials in evaluation can lead to due process complaints and investigations by the Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
While IDEA often gets the most attention, Section 504 frequently applies to larger groups of students and shows up in more OCR complaints and legal actions. Section 504 is a civil rights law that prohibits discrimination against individuals with disabilities in any program or activity receiving federal funding—which includes nearly all public schools, charter schools, and many private schools.
Unlike IDEA, which is limited to 13 specific disability categories, Section 504 protects any student with a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, including conditions such as ADHD, anxiety or depression, diabetes, asthma, epilepsy, and temporary circumstances like recovery from surgery or a broken bone.
The goal of Section 504 is equal access. If a student qualifies under 504, they’re entitled to reasonable accommodations that allow them to access the general education environment on an equal footing with peers. This is an area where schools often get confused, especially in 504 plans.
504 plans must be based on evaluation data, and although they don’t include annual goals like IEPs, they must be reviewed periodically to ensure they remain appropriate.
The ADA is the broadest of the three laws. It guarantees civil rights protections for individuals with disabilities across all public life, not just schools. This includes transportation, public buildings, digital content (e.g., websites), and school programs and activities (academic and non-academic).
The ADA reinforces that access isn’t just academic. Students must be able to participate in recess and lunch, field trips and school assemblies, after-school programs and athletics, and school theater and clubs. For example, a student with a hearing impairment must have captions on school videos or interpreters at school events. And a student with mobility limitations must be able to access all parts of campus, not just their classroom. If a school fails to meet these accessibility standards, it risks OCR complaints and lawsuits, especially in cases of new construction or building renovations that are not ADA compliant.
So, how do all these legal requirements connect to the tools we use in the classroom?
It’s not enough for a curriculum to be engaging. It must also support individualized instruction, inclusive practices, and measurable progress aligned with legal standards. This is where TeachTown can help. TeachTown’s standards-first, adapted core curriculum, enCORE, allows educators to customize learning pathways for diverse learners and document instruction and progress in real-time, ensuring schools are meeting and exceeding special education requirements for their students.
TeachTown bridges the gap between compliance and quality instructions through:
Let TeachTown help take the stress out of special education compliance. Schedule a consultation with a team member today!
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. §§ 1400–1482.
Endrew F. v. Douglas County. Sch. Dist. RE–1, 580 U.S. 386 (2017).
Rehabilitation Act of 1973 § 504, 29 U.S.C. § 794.
Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA), 42 U.S.C. §§ 12101–12213. 20 U.S
Kirsten Fredlund is an experienced educator and emerging legal professional based in Fort Worth, Texas, where she lives with her fiancé and their dog. With over a decade of experience in special education and instructional leadership, Kirsten has developed a passion for advocacy, especially on behalf of underserved student populations. She has recently completed her Juris Doctor at Faulkner University’s Thomas Goode Jones School of Law, where she served as a Student Bar Association Senator and Honor Court Justice. A graduate of the University of Georgia (M.Ed.) and the University of Alabama (B.S.Ed.), Kirsten is known for her data-driven approach, collaborative mindset, and unwavering commitment to student success.
Tasha McKinney brings over eight years of experience in education. After four years of teaching outdoor education programs, she pursued a Master’s in Early Childhood Special Education at the University of Texas. Since then, she has worked in classroom settings and created content for EdTech companies.