The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the main federal statute governing special education for children from birth through age 21. IDEA protects the rights of children with disabilities to a free appropriate public education (FAPE). It also supplements state and local funding to pay for some of the additional or excess costs of educating children with disabilities. IDEA is administered by the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) in the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) in the Department of Education (ED). In the 2016-2017 school year (SY), 6.8 million children ages 3 through 21 received special education and related services under Part B of the IDEA. In SY2016-2017, approximately 13.4% of all public school students ages 3 through 21 received services under the IDEA. IDEA was originally enacted in 1975 as the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, P.L. 94-142 . At that time, Congress found that more than half of all children with disabilities were not receiving appropriate educational services and that 1 million children with disabilities were excluded entirely from the public school system. Further, Congress found that many of the children participating in regular school programs were prevented from having a successful educational experience because their disabilities were undiagnosed. In addition to the awareness of the difficulties faced by children with disabilities, there were three other factors that precipitated the enactment of P.L. 94-142 : (1) judicial decisions that found constitutional requirements for the education of children with disabilities, (2) the inability of states and localities to fund education for children with disabilities, and (3) potential long-term benefits of educating children with disabilities. IDEA consists of four parts. Part A contains the general provisions, including the purposes of the act and definitions. Part B contains provisions relating to the education of school aged children (the grants-to-states program) and state grants program for preschool children with disabilities (Section 619). Part C authorizes state grants for programs serving infants and toddlers with disabilities, while Part D contains the requirements for various national activities designed to improve the education of children with disabilities. Table 1 shows the structure and funding of IDEA. Appendix A provides a more detailed summary of each of the four parts. Since 1975, IDEA has been the subject of numerous reauthorizations to extend services and rights to children with disabilities. The most recent reauthorization was P.L. 108-446 in 2004. Funding for Part B, Assistance for Education of all Children with Disabilities, is permanently authorized. Funding for Part C, Infants and Toddlers with Disabilities, and Part D, National Activities, was authorized through FY2011. Funding for the programs continues to be provided through annual appropriations acts. Three of the main purposes of IDEA are (A) to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living; (B) to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents of such children are protected; and (C) to assist states, localities, educational service agencies, and Federal agencies to provide for the education of all children with disabilities; The focus of this report will be on how these purposes are to be achieved under Part B of the IDEA, hereinafter referred to as IDEA. The first purpose is addressed primarily in the section of this report titled " Services for Children with Disabilities ." The second is addressed in the section on " Procedural Safeguards ," and the third is addressed in the section on " Funding, Expenditure Requirements, and Compliance ." Children with disabilities receive specially designed instruction and other services to meet their unique needs. This section addresses (1) criteria children must meet to receive services under IDEA, (2) how the children are identified and evaluated, and (3) the procedures for developing an individualized education plan to provide special education and related services. To be covered under IDEA, a child with a disability must meet two criteria. First, the child must be in one of several categories of disabilities, and second, the child must require special education and related services as a result of the disability in order to benefit from public education. If a child meets the two criteria, he or she would be eligible to receive specially designed instruction or special education in which the content or the delivery of the instruction is adapted to the needs of the child. If a child has a disability, but does not require special education to benefit from public education, he or she would not be covered under IDEA. The child might be covered, however, under two other acts that address the rights of individuals with disabilities: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). These two acts provide broad nondiscrimination protection not limited to education and have identical functional definitions of disability (i.e., disabilities related to such functions as seeing, hearing, walking, thinking) rather than the categorical definition used in the IDEA. "Several of the most common disabilities of students included under Section 504 and the ADA, but not always covered under IDEA, are attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), diabetes, and asthma." Figure 1 shows the distribution of students with disabilities ages 3 through 21 receiving special education and related services in the fall of 2016. Approximately 34% of students with disabilities have specific learning disabilities (SLD). Learning disabilities include such conditions as dyslexia, perceptual disabilities, and developmental aphasia. All children with disabilities receiving special education or related services under IDEA between the ages of 3 and 21, inclusive, residing in a state are entitled to FAPE. The term "free appropriate public education" means: special education and related services that—(A) have been provided at public expense, under public supervision and direction, and without charge; (B) meet the standards of the state educational agency; (C) include an appropriate preschool, elementary school, or secondary school education in the state involved; and (D) are provided in conformity with the individualized education program required under section 614(d) [Individualized Education Programs (IEP)]. FAPE must be made available to all children with disabilities who qualify for special education and related services, including children who have been suspended or expelled from school. The first step in providing FAPE to children with disabilities is identifying them. Each state must have in effect policies and procedures to ensure that all children with disabilities residing in the state who are in need of special education and related services are identified, located, and evaluated. These policies and procedures are referred to in statute as "child find." The children include those with disabilities who are homeless or wards of the state, attending private schools, suspected of having a disability, and highly mobile children, including migrant children. A child who has been identified as having (or possibly having) a disability must be evaluated by the local education agency (LEA), before receiving special education and related services to determine whether a child is a child with a disability and to determine the educational needs of the child. Either the parent or the LEA may request an initial evaluation. In general, the LEA must obtain informed consent from the parent before conducting an initial evaluation. Parental consent for an evaluation cannot be construed as consent for special education and related services. The initial evaluation must take place within 60 days of receiving parental consent or within an alternative time frame established by the state. In conducting the initial evaluation, the LEA must use a variety of assessment tools and strategies to gather relevant functional, developmental, and academic information, including information provided by the parent; use multiple measures or assessments as the criteria for determining whether a child is a child with a disability or determining an appropriate educational program for the child; and use technically sound instruments that may assess the relative contribution of cognitive and behavioral factors, in addition to physical or developmental factors. In addition, assessments and other evaluation materials used to assess a child must be selected and administered so as not to be discriminatory on a racial or cultural basis. They must also be provided and administered in the language and form most likely to yield accurate information on what the child knows and can do academically, developmentally, and functionally. Upon completion of the evaluation, the determination of whether the child is a child with a disability is made and the educational needs of the child are decided by a team of individuals that includes qualified professionals and the child's parent or guardian. A copy of the evaluation report and the documentation of determination of eligibility must be provided to the parent. In making a determination of eligibility, a child shall not be determined to be a child with a disability if the determinant factor is lack of appropriate instruction in reading, lack of instruction in math, or limited English proficiency. Reevaluations are required if the child's teacher or parent makes a request or if the LEA determines that the child's educational and service needs, academic achievement, or functional performance warrant a reevaluation. For example, a reevaluation might be warranted if the child's performance in school significantly improves, suggesting that he or she no longer requires special education and related services, or if the child is not making progress toward the goals in his or her IEP, indicating that changes are needed in the education or related services the LEA is providing. In general, parental consent is required for reevaluations as well as for the initial evaluation. In addition, the LEA cannot change the eligibility of a child until a reevaluation is done, unless the child graduates from high school with a regular diploma or reaches the age at which state law no longer provides for FAPE. A reevaluation may not be done more than once a year unless the parent and LEA agree to an additional reevaluation, and a reevaluation must be done at least once every three years, unless the parent and the LEA agree that a reevaluation is not necessary.