It also lists goals and objectives, which are used to measure a student's progress and determine whether the program and placement are appropriate" ("The IEP Cycle," DREF, 2007). Each student's IEP must be developed by a team of people who are knowledgeable and concerned about the student and must be at least reviewed annually. The team may include the child's teacher, the parents, the child, and agency representatives. "If parents disagree with the proposed IEP, they can request a due process hearing and a review from the State educational agency if applicable in that state" ("Guide to Disability Rights Laws," U.S. Dept. Of Justice, 2005). IDEA lists 13 categories under which a student can qualify for special education services, including autism, deaf-blindness, deafness, hearing impairment, mental retardation, multiple disabilities, orthopedic impairment, other health impairment, serious emotional disturbance, specific learning disability, speech or, language impairment, traumatic brain Injury and visual impairment, including blindness ("The IEP Cycle," DREF, 2007). Disabilities can thus be cognitive, physical, emotional,...

In all of these cases of disability, the intention of the act remains not to treat all children the 'same' for to treat disabled children the same as non-disabled children would be a form of discrimination (like denying books in Braille to a blind student, which would prevent the child from learning to read). Rather it is to provide aid to disabled children so they have the same quality of learning experience as their non-disabled peers.
Works Cited

Guide to Disability Rights Laws." U.S. Dept. Of Justice. (Sept 2005). Retrieved 18 Jun

2007 at http://www.usdoj.gov/crt/ada/cguide.htm#anchor65310

The IEP Cycle." DREF: Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund. Retrieved 18 Jun

2007 at http://www.dredf.org/special_education/iep_cycle.shtml

Minow, M.L. (2001). Update on implementation of IDEA: early returns from state studies. Wakefield, MA: National Center on Accessing the General Curriculum. Retrieved 12 Jun 2007 at http://www.cast.org/publications/ncac/ncac_update.html