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The IDEA, Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, is a federal law that governs all special education services in the United States. IDEA provides some federal funding to state and local education agencies to guarantee special education and related services for those students who meet the criteria for eligibility in a number of diverse categories of disability. Section 504 is different from IDEA, in that Section 504 is a civil rights statute, rather than a federal programmatic statute. Therefore, the federal government does not provide additional funding for students. Section 504 requires that schools, public or private, who receive federal financial assistance for educational purpose, and not discriminate against children with handicaps. Under the IDEA guidelines, state that school districts are required to identify and evaluate children assumed of having a disability. For the IDEA many school districts use a parent handbook as a method for identifying students that are in need of services. Section 504 does require school district personal to locate and identify students in their school district suspected of having a disability who attend p