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Delivering on the Promise: Preliminary Report

Transmittal Memo [DOC = 28K]; Cover: PDF = 203K
Table of Contents [Complete Report: HTML = 154K, DOC = 535K]
Federal Actions: Intro | Overview | Highlights | Health Care | Housing | Assistance | Personal Support | Transportation
Employment | Education | Technology Access | Compliance | Outreach | Income Supports | Data Use | Coordination
Executive Order 13217: Alternatives | The Initiative | Roots | Public Input | Conclusion
Appendices: Summary of Initiatives | Input Entities | Federal Register Notice

Appendix A
Summary of Disability-Related Legislative Initiatives

Social Security of Act of 1935
Established federal/state system of health services for "crippled" children; permanently authorized civilian rehabilitation program.

Wagner-O'Day Act of 1938.
Authorized federal purchases from workshops for people who are blind.

Randolph-Sheppard Act of 1938.
Authorized federal program to employ people who are blind as vendors on federal property.

Vocational Rehabilitation Act of 1954.
Authorized innovation and expansion grants, and grants to colleges and universities for professional training.

Wagner-Peyser Act Amendments of 1954.
Required federal/state employment security offices to designate staff members to assist people with severe disabilities.

Social Security Amendments of 1956.
Established Social Security Disability Insurance Trust Fund and provided for payments to eligible workers who became disabled.

National Defense Education Act of 1958.
Authorized federal assistance for preparation of teachers of children with disabilities.

Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act of 1963.
Provided grants for construction of mental retardation research centers and facilities; provided for training of educational personnel involved with youth with disabilities; authorized grants to states for construction of community mental health centers.

Mental Retardation Facilities and Community Mental Health Centers Construction Act Amendments of 1965.
Established grant program to cover initial staffing costs for community mental health centers.

Social Security Act Amendments of 1965.
Established Medicaid program for elderly people and for blind persons and other persons with disabilities.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.
Authorized federal aid to states and localities for educating deprived children, including children with disabilities.

Elementary and Secondary Education Act Amendments of 1966.
Created National Advisory Committee on Handicapped Children; created Bureau of Education for the Handicapped in U.S. Office of Education.

Fair Labor Standards Amendments of 1966
Established standards for employment of workers with disabilities, allowing for subminimum wages.

Elementary and Secondary Education Amendments of 1967
Authorized regional resource centers; authorized centers and services for deaf-blind children.

Handicapped Children's Early Education Assistance Act of 1968
Established grant program for preschool and early education of children with disabilities.

Vocational Education Act Amendments of 1968.
Required participating states to earmark 10 percent of basic vocational education allotment for youth with disabilities.

Architectural Barriers Act of 1968.
Required most buildings and facilities built, constructed, or altered with federal funds after 1969 to be accessible.

Developmental Disabilities Services and Facilities Construction Amendments of 1970.
Expanded services to individuals with epilepsy and cerebral palsy; authorized new state formula grant program; defined "developmental disability" in categorical terms; established state-level planning council.

Urban Mass Transportation Act Amendment of 1970.
Authorized grants to states and localities for accessible mass transportation.

Javits-Wagner-O'Day Act of 1971.
Extended purchase authority to workshops for people with severe disabilities in addition to blindness; retained through 1976 preference for workshops for people who are blind.

Social Security Amendments of 1972.
Extended Medicare coverage to individuals with disabilities; established Supplemental Security Income program for elderly people and for blind persons and other persons with disabilities.

Small Business Investment Act Amendments of 1972.
Established the "Handicapped Assistance Loan Program" to provide loans to nonprofit sheltered workshops and individuals with disabilities.

Rehabilitation Act of 1973.
Prohibited disability discrimination in federally assisted programs and activities and federal agencies; required affirmative action programs for people with disabilities by federal agencies and some federal contractors; established the Architectural and Transportation Barriers Compliance Board.

Education Amendments of 1974.
Required states to establish plans and timetables for providing full educational opportunities for all children with disabilities as condition of receiving federal funds.

Headstart, Economic Opportunity, and Community Partnership Act of 1974
Required that at least 10 percent of children enrolled in Headstart be children with disabilities.

Housing and Community Development Act of 1974.
Established Section 8 housing program for low-income families, including individuals with disabilities and/or their families.

Developmentally Disabled Assistance and Bill of Rights Act of 1975.
Described congressional findings regarding rights of persons with developmental disabilities; established funding for protection and advocacy systems; added requirement that state plan include deinstitutuionalization plan; required states to develop and annually review rehabilitation plans for all clients.

Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975.
Required states to establish policy assuring free appropriate public education for children with disabilities as condition for receiving Part B funds; established procedural safeguards, procedures for mainstreaming children with disabilities to the maximum extent possible, and procedures for nondiscriminatory testing and evaluation practices.

Rehabilitation, Comprehensive Services, and Developmental Disabilities Amendments of 1978.
Established National Institute of Handicapped Research; established National Council on the Handicapped; authorized grant program for independent living services; replaced categorical definition of developmental disability with functional definition; established minimum funding level for protection and advocacy services.

Civil Rights Commission Act of 1978.
Expanded jurisdiction of Civil Rights Commission to disability discrimination.

Department of Education Organization Act of 1979.
Established Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services in new cabinet-level Department of Education.

Civil Rights of Institutionalized Persons Act of 1980.
Empowered Department of Justice to bring suit against states for allegedly violating rights of institutionalized persons with disabilities.

Job Training Partnership Act of 1982.
Authorized training and placement services for "economically disadvantaged" individuals, including persons with disabilities.

Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1983.
Authorized grants for training parents of children with disabilities.

Child Abuse Prevention Treatment Act Amendments of 1984.
Required states' child protection agencies to develop procedures for responding to reports that newborns with disabling conditions were being denied treatment; established conditions for requiring such treatment.

Developmental Disabilities Act of 1984.
Shifted emphasis to employment in priority services; required Individual Habilitation Plan for consumers; increased minimum funding for protection and advocacy services.

Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1984.
Established Client Assistance Programs as formula grant programs; made National Council on the Handicapped an independent agency.

Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act of 1985.
Expanded the definition of "habilitation" for Home and Community-Based Waiver recipients with developmental disabilities to cover certain pre-vocational services and supported employment for previously institutionalized individuals; authorized states to cover ventilator-dependent children under the waiver program if they would otherwise require continued inpatient care.

Education of the Handicapped Act Amendments of 1986.
Authorized a new grant program for states to develop an early intervention system for infants and toddlers with disabilities and their families, and provide greater incentives for states to provide preschool programs for children with disabilities between the ages of three and five.

Handicapped Children's Protection Act of 1986.
Authorizes courts to award reasonable attorneys fees to parents who prevail in due process proceedings and court actions under Part B of the Education of the Handicapped Act.

Employment Opportunities for Disabled Americans Act of 1986.
Made the Section 1619(a) and 1619(b) work incentives a permanent feature of the Social Security Act; added provisions to enable individuals to move back and forth among regular SSI, Section 1619(a) and Section 1619(b) eligibility status.

Education of the Deaf Act of 1986.
Updated statute establishing Gallaudet College and changed name to Gallaudet University; authorized Gallaudet University to operate demonstration elementary and secondary schools for deaf children; established Commission on Education of the Deaf.

Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1986.
"Severe disability" definition expanded to include functional (as well as categorical) criteria; defined "employability" for first time; added formula grant program for supported employment; renamed research branch the National Institute on Disability and Rehabilitation Research.

Air Carrier Access Act of 1986.
Prohibited disability discrimination in provision of air transportation.

Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act of 1986.
Authorized formula grant program for statewide advocacy services for person with mental illness, provided directly by, or under contract with, the protection and advocacy system for persons with developmental disabilities.

Developmental Disabilities and Bill of Rights Act Amendments of 1987.
Raised minimum allotment levels for basic state grant program and protection and advocacy systems; increased minimum allotment for university-affiliated programs, basic state grant program, and protection and advocacy systems.

Technology-Related Assistance for Individuals with Disabilities Act of 1988.
Provided grants to states to develop statewide assistive technology programs.

Fair Housing Act Amendments of 1988.
Added persons with disabilities as a group protected from discrimination in housing and ensures that persons with disabilities are allowed to adapt their dwelling place to meet their needs.

Omnibus Reconciliation Act of 1989.
Included major expansion in required services under Medicaid's Early and Periodic Screening, Diagnosis and Treatment Program (EPSDT).

Television Decoder Circuitry Act of 1990.
Required new television sets to have capability for close-captioned television transmission.

Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990.
Prohibited disability discrimination in employment, public services and public accommodations operated by private entities; requires that telecommunication services be made accessible.

Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1992.
Changed eligibility requirements and procedures for determining eligibility; strengthened requirements for interagency cooperation; strengthened consumer involvement requirements.

Family and Medical Leave Act of 1993.
Allowed workers to take up to 12 weeks of unpaid leave to care for newborn and adopted children and family members with serious health conditions or to recover from serious health conditions.

National Voter Registration Act of 1993.
Required states to liberalize their voter registration rules to allow people to register to vote by mail, when they apply for driver's licenses or at offices that provide public assistance and programs for individuals with disabilities such as vocational rehabilitation programs.

Goals 2000: Educate America Act of 1994.
Provided framework for meeting national educational goals and carrying out systemic school reform for all children with disabilities.

Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Required telecommunications manufacturers and service providers to ensure that equipment is designed, developed and fabricated to be accessible to and usable by individuals with disabilities, if readily achievable.

Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996.
Improved access to health care for some Americans by guaranteeing that private health insurance is available, portable and renewable; limiting pre-existing condition exclusions and increasing the purchasing clout of individuals and small employers through incentives to form private, voluntary coalitions to negotiate with providers and health plans.

Mental Health Parity Act of 1996.
Included a provision that prohibits insurance companies from having lower lifetime caps for treatment of mental illness compared with treatment of other medical conditions.

Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act of 1996.
Required work in exchange for time-limited assistance; Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) replaced the former welfare programs, ending the federal entitlement to assistance; states, territories, and tribes receive a block grant allocation with a requirement on states to maintain a historical level of state spending known as maintenance of effort.

Balanced Budget Act of 1997.
Section 4733 provided a new Medicaid buy-in option for people with disabilities. This provision gives states the option to allow individuals with disabilities who return to work the ability to purchase Medicaid coverage as their earnings increase up to 250% poverty, based on an individual's net rather than gross income.

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of 1997 (IDEA) Reauthorization.
Formally called P.L. 94-142 or the Education of All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, IDEA required public schools to make available to all eligible children with disabilities a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment appropriate to their individual needs.

Workforce Investment Act of 1998.
Required consolidation of several federal education, training, and employment programs; reauthorized Rehabilitation Act programs through fiscal year 2003 and linked those programs to state and local workforce development systems.

Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998.
The Quality Housing and Work Responsibility Act of 1998, affecting HUD-funded public and assisted housing, eliminated previously required Federal preferences shown to people with disabilities and some other groups but left any such previous preferences intact or optional at the local level. Public housing agencies, which provide HUD-funded public and assisted housing, must also develop Annual Plans and 5-Year Plans reflecting their preferences and other matters such as changes in the "disability-related tenant composition" of the housing those agencies offer and accessibility issues. Public housing agencies must also certify that their plans and implementation comply with all Federal civil rights and fair housing laws including those which cover persons with disabilities in addition to cove ring other protected classes.

Assistive Technology Act of 1998.
Authorized State grant programs and protection and advocacy systems to address the assistive technology needs of people with disabilities; authorized the development of alternative financing mechanisms to assist people with disabilities in purchasing assistive technology.

Ticket to Work and Work Incentives Improvement Act of 1999.
Allowed for Medicaid and/or Medicare benefits for many people with disabilities who go to work; provided for a "ticket to work and self-sufficiency" which allows Social Security beneficiaries with disabilities choice and expanded options in pursuing employment and employment supports.

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* This chart is a reprint of the information in Appendix C to Re-Charting the Course: Turning Points, The Third Report of the Presidential Task Force on Employment of Adults with Disabilities (2000), and is used with the permission of the Task Force. This chart was adapted from Kay F. Schriner and Andrew I. Batavia, "Disability Law and Social Policy," Encyclopedia of Disability and Rehabilitation, NewYork: Simon & Schuster Macmillan, 1995, with summaries of legislation enacted since 1995 contributed by Carri George, Rebecca Ogle, Bobby Silverstein, and the Department of Justice's 1997 publication, A Guide to Disability Rights Laws. This chart includes laws and amendments to laws significant to the context of this report and is not intended to be exhaustive or all inclusive.

Last revised: April 9, 2002