50 for 50 Double Match MoDE Foundation

Celebrating 50 Years of the IDEA Law: Support Continued Advocacy for Children with Disabilities in Missouri!

Did you know that 2025 marks the 50th anniversary of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act? Prior to 1975, children with disabilities were discriminated against from attending their public schools. Their parents were often coerced into institutionalizing their children or searching for places that would be willing to educate their children through private pay or donations like churches and synagogues. Thanks to the founding mothers of IDEA: Katie Dolan, Cecile Lundquist, Janet Taggart, and Evelyn Chapman, we have a powerful law and it is the only parentally enforced federal law on the books. 

The IDEA law has been through several revisions over 50 years and sets the floor standard for education services to children with disabilities. This law allows states to interpret certain issues, like the level of parental written consent for certain changes to a child's individual education program. Missouri is one of the weakest states in giving parents and students equal consent power in the IEP process. MoDE Foundation has put forth great effort in making changes to laws at the state level over the years to provide better insurance coverage for therapies, allow recording of IEP meetings, and safer seclusion and restraint policies. MoDE Foundation continues to lead the way in advocating for stronger parental consent laws as we enter the 2026 legislative session. Please make a donation of $50 today, to ensure that parents and students have equal consent rights at the IEP table! Thank you, Dr. Lara Wakefield