Some people may think that special education has been in place since the beginning of public education. Others may consider a time when special education did not exist and students with disabilities could not attend school. The truth is that there was a time when this happened; these students were not allowed to be taught in a general education classroom alongside their peers. People with disabilities were treated differently and some were forced into institutions because teachers and staff considered them disruptive to their peers. Fortunately, special education has come a long way since the beginning of public education. People, especially parents, stood up for their children and today there are many laws in place to ensure that all children have the right to be educated, regardless of their disability. These special education laws began with landmark Supreme Court decisions. Following Plessy v. Ferguson, with the Supreme Court ruling that separate but equal facilities were acceptable, students with disabilities were excluded from public education. For example, in Massachusetts in 1893, a disabled child was removed from school because "he was so feeble-minded that he derived no marked benefit from education and, further, because he was annoying to the other children…” (quoted in Watson v. City of Cambridge, 1893). Twenty years later, there hasn't been much improvement. In 1919, a student with normal intelligence but suffering from an orthopedic deficiency was also excluded for the following reasons: his physical condition and illness produced a depressing and nauseating effect on teachers and schoolchildren; . . . it occupies an excessive proportion of the teacher's time and attention, distracts from other students, a...... middle of paper ......that children with disabilities have equal opportunities in matters of education, work and the community. Without the adoption of these laws, children with disabilities would have faced lifelong exclusion. Special education has certainly progressed significantly over the past 50 years, but there is still much to do, such as debunking myths about people with disabilities and changing the way we view disability. Works Cited Billingsley, BS, Brownell, MT, Israel, M., & Kamman, ML (2013). A survival guide for new special educators. Somerset, NJ: John Wiley & Sons. Friend, M. (2014). Special education: Contemporary perspectives for school professionals (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson. Mastropieri, MA and Scruggs, TE (2006). The inclusion classroom: strategies for effective teaching (3rd ed.). Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson.