Education Legislation

The Elementary and Secondary Education Act is the largest source of federal support for K-12 education that was started in 1965.  It is federal assistance that helps low economic schools and communities.  Title 1 is one of the programs that help schools that have students and families living in poverty.  The Title 1 offers money to schools to create programs such as early-childhood education, tutoring, after school programs and much more.  I work at Nicolet Elementary and it is a Title 1 school that offers great programs for the students and the families.  Some of the activities that Nicolet has include, Back to School Barbecue, Seuss on the Loose, Showcase of Learning, Vocabulary Parade, and Math Night to name a few.  Some of that money is also used for professional developments for teachers and tutoring.  However, being a Title 1 school needs to report the progress academically in order to keep receiving the funds.  Nicolet school has goals that need to be met.  At Nicolet it is expected to have 100% in different areas such as parent’s involvement in at least two school activities, participation in conferences and is also expected that 100% of students in all grade levels meet all the academics goals. 

Title IX is part of the Education Amendments of 1972.  This is an amendment that prohibits discriminations on the basis of sex in any federally funded education program.  It protects the rights of males and females from pre-kindergarten through graduate school in academics, sports, financial aid, employment, counseling and school policies.  Unfortunately some of the act’s regulations have been violated by some schools.

In 1975, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was created to ensure that children with disabilities could receive free, adequate public education just like other kids.  Before this act was created, there was no organized, fair way to address the need of the students with disabilities.  They were marginalized and separated and not taught to their learning potential.  Now the federal legislation has made it possible to include kids with special needs to a regular classroom with different degrees of inclusion depending on the needs of the student.  Research has shown that inclusion is better for special education students and students from the general population.

-Marco Olson Guillén