At a commemorative event (date and venue not specified in the transcript), Speaker 2 (unidentified in the record) recounted the federal law that led to today’s special education protections, saying President Gerald Ford signed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Public Law 94-142) on Nov. 29, 1975 and that the statute later evolved into the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, commonly called IDEA.

Speaker 2 outlined Congress’s original findings that many children with disabilities were not receiving an education or appropriate services and described the EHA’s goals: improve identification and education of children with disabilities, evaluate program success, provide due-process protections, and authorize federal support to states to offset special-education costs. "Today, IDEA is a law that ensures a free, appropriate public education in the least restrictive environment to every child with a disability age 3 through 21," Speaker 2 said.

The speaker traced federal oversight and program changes: through 1979 the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare oversaw implementation, and in 1979 responsibility moved to the newly created U.S. Department of Education. The 1986 reauthorization, Speaker 2 said, required states to provide services beginning at birth rather than starting at age 3.

Speaker 2 described the 1990 reauthorization that renamed the statute the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, adding autism and traumatic brain injury as disability categories and requiring individualized education programs (IEPs) to include transition services to postsecondary life. On the 1997 changes, Speaker 2 said Congress emphasized improving results and access to the general curriculum, allowed states to expand the definition of developmental delay to students up to age 9, and encouraged parents and local educational agencies to resolve disputes through mediation.

Discussing the 2004 reauthorization, Speaker 2 said the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 added strategies to support students at risk of referral to special education, strengthened accountability for outcomes, raised standards for special education teachers, and encouraged use of research-based practices when developing IEPs. "Because of IDEA, students with disabilities have access to educational programs and the supports and services they need to be successful," Speaker 2 stated.

A different participant, Speaker 4, commented on parental burden, saying the reauthorized law "helps make sure that parents will not have to resort to superhuman means to get what they need for their children." The proceedings closed with Speaker 3 urging, "Let the shameful wall of exclusion finally come tumbling down," followed by a brief blessing.

The transcript supplied to this report does not identify the event’s date or venue and does not provide the speakers’ full names or official titles; throughout this article, attributions use the speaker labels that appear in the transcript (Speaker 1–4).