Problems of special education multidisciplinary teams: Implications for counselor intervention

In 1975 Congress passed into law the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, Public Law (P.L.) 94-142. This law went into effect in September 1977. The intent of the law was to serve handicapped children whose needs were not fully met or were completely denied (Weintrab, 1976). The law had four major purposes (Ballard, 1978): .Guarantee the availability of special education programming to handicapped children and youth who require it . • Assure fairness and appropriateness in decision making about providing special education to handicapped children and youth • • Establish clear management and auditing requirements and procedures regarding special education at all levels of government • • Financially assist the efforts of state and local government through the use of federal funds (p. 2)