New directions in the evaluation and education of handicapped children.

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, which went into effect last October, ensures the right of handicapped children to free appropriate public education. State and local education agencies are required to identify, evaluate and provide services for all disabled children. This multibilliondollar program will guarantee special education resources for up to 12 per cent of American children. A role for physicians in the program is implied rather than defined in the law. Their involvement will vary somewhat from state to state, but will at a minimum involve counseling parents whose children are under evaluation. The law assumes a sophistication of diagnostic ability and curriculum design that does not yet exist, and therefore places a special burden upon physicians to deal effectively with patients now, while developing better training programs and assessment tools, and makes essential the enhancement of the communication between doctors and educators.