Special Education and it's Issues

  • Brown v. Board of Education

    Issue: Overturn of separate but equal doctrine; integration of Kansas public schools
    Finding: The case was the basis for future rulings that children with disabilities cannot be excluded from school.
  • Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children (PARC) v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania

    Issue: Access to public education for students with intellectual disabilities
    Finding: In the state of Pennsylvania, no child with intellectual disabilities can be denied a public education.
  • Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia

    Issue: Access to special education for all students with disabilities
    Finding: All students with disabilities have a right to a free public education.
  • Section 504

    Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973
    ● set the stage for IDEA and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA);
    ● guaranteed basic civil rights to people with disabilities; and
    ● required accommodations in schools and in society.
  • PL 94-142

    Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA)
    ● Guaranteed a FAPE in the LRE; and
    ● Was a landmark civil rights effort for students with disabilities.
  • Rowley v. Hendrick Hudson School District

    Issue: Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE)
    Finding/Importance: School districts must provide those services that permit a student with disabilities to benefit from instruction.
  • Irving Independent School District v. Tatro

    Issue: Defining related services
    Finding/Importance: Clean intermittent catheterization is a related service when necessary to allow a student to stay in school.
  • Smith v. Robinson

    Issue: Attorneys’ fees
    Finding/Importance: Parents are reimbursed legal fees when they win a case resulting from special education litigation.
  • Burlington School Committee v. Department of Education

    Issue: Private school placement
    Finding/Importance: In some cases, public schools may be required to pay for private school placements when the district does not provide a FAPE.
  • PL 99-457

    EHA (reauthorized)
    ● Added infants and toddlers; and
    ● Provided the IFSP.
  • Honig v. Doe

    Issue: Exclusion from school
    Finding/Importance: Students whose misbehavior is related to their disability cannot be denied education.
  • Timothy W v. Rochester, New Hampshire, School District

    Issue: FAPE
    Finding/Importance: Regardless of the existence or severity of a students’ disability, a public education is the right of every child.
  • PL 101-476

    Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA)
    ● Changed the name of PL 94-142 to IDEA;
    ● Added individualized transition plans (ITPs);
    ● Added autism as a special education category; and
    ● Added traumatic brain injury as a category.
  • PL 101-336

    Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA)
    ● Barred discrimination in employment, transportation, public accommodations, and telecommunications;
    ● Implemented the concept of normalization across U.S. life; and
    ● Required phased-in accessibility in schools.
  • Zobrest v. Catalina Foothills School District

    Issue: Paid interpreter at parochial high school
    Finding/Importance: Paying for a sign language interpreter at a parochial school does not violate the constitutional separation of church and state.
  • Carter v. Florence County School District 4

    Issue: Reimbursement for private school
    Finding/Importance: A court may order reimbursement to parents who withdraw their children from a public school that provides inappropriate education, even though the private placement does not meet all IDEA requirements.
  • Doe v. Withers

    Issue: FAPE
    Finding/Importance: Teachers are responsible for the implementation of accommodations specified in individual students’ IEPs.
  • PL 105-17

    IDEA 1997 (reauthorized)
    ● Added ADHD to the category of other health impairment;
    ● Added functional behavioral assessments and behavioral intervention plans; and
    ● Changed ITP to a component of the IEP.
  • Cedar Rapids School District v. Garret F.

    Issue: Related Services
    Finding/Importance: Health attendants are related service and a district’s expense if the service is necessary to maintain students in educational programs.
  • PL 107-110

    Elementary and Secondary Education (No Child Left Behind) Act of 2001 (ESEA or NCLB)
    ● Required that all school children participate in state and district testing;
    ● Called for 100% proficiency of all students in reading and math by 2012; and
    ● Called for scientifically based research for programs and interventions.
  • PL 108-364

    Assistive Technology Act of 2004 (ATA, or Tech Act) (reauthorized)
    ● Provided support for school-to-work transition projects;
    ● Continued a national website on AT; and
    ● Assisted states in creating and supporting device loan programs, financial loans to individuals with disabilities to purchase AT devices, and equipment demonstration.
  • PL 108-446

    IDEA (reauthorized; called Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA); commonly referred to as IDEA)
    ● Required special education teachers to be highly qualified;
    ● Mandated that all students with disabilities participate annually either in state and district testing with accommodations or in alternative assessments;
    ● Eliminated IEP short-term objectives and benchmarks, except for those who use alternative assessments;
  • PL 108-446

    IDEA (reauthorized; called Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA); commonly referred to as IDEA)
    ● Changed identification procedures for learning disabilities; and
    ● Allowed any student to be placed in an interim alternative educational setting for involvement in weapons, drugs, or violence.
  • Arlington Central School District Board of Education v. Murphy

    Issues: Fees
    Finding/Importance: Parents are entitled to receiver fees for expert witnesses in special education due process hearings.
  • PL 110-325

    Americans with Disabilities Act Amendment Act (ADAAA) (reauthorized)
    ● Restored workplace protection diminished by previous court decisions; and
    ● Redefined “major life activities” to enable individuals with disabilities to be protected against discrimination in the workplace.
  • Forest Grove School District v. T.A.

    Issue: Private school tuition reimbursement
    Finding/Importance: Parents are entitled reimbursement for private school special education services regardless of whether the child had received special education services in a public-school setting and the public school had not provided a FAPE.
  • PL 111-256

    Rosa’s Law
    ● Changed the terms mental retardation and mentally retarded to intellectual disabilities and intellectually disabiled in federal laws.
  • PL 111-148

    The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act
    ● Prohibited exclusion for preexisting conditions;
    ● Eliminated caps on benefits; and
    ● Prohibited discrimination based on disability and health status.
  • PL 99-457 PL 108-446

    Individuals with Disabilities Education Act: Part C-Early Intervention Program
    ● Allocated funding to states to serve infants and toddlers through age 2 with developmental delays or who have physical or mental conditions that result in developmental delays; and
    ● Ensure early intervention services for infants and toddlers with disabilities birth through age 2.
  • PL 114-95

    Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (reauthorized the ESEA)
    ● Required all students be taught to high academic standards to prepare them to succeed in college and careers;
    ● Ensured annual state assessments that measure student progress toward high standards;
    ● Ensured accountability in lowest-performing schools
  • PL 114-95

    Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) (reauthorized the ESEA)
    ○ The ESSA removed “highly qualified special education teachers” and included qualifications for special education teachers as holding state certification as a special education teacher or passing the state special education licensing exam.
    ○ The ESSA revised the term limited English proficient to English learner.
  • PL 114-95

    ○ The ESSA clarified that alternative assessments should be aligned with alternative academic achievement standards for students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who cannot participate in regular assessments even with accommodations. Expectations for achievement are modified with respect to the state grade-level content standards.
    ○ The ESSA specified that only 1% of students in special education can be given alternative tests.
    ○ The ESSA required evidence-based interventions.
  • Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District

    Issue: Equal opportunity to achieve success like other kids
    Finding/Importance: The school district argued that the boy who had autism had the right to only a de minimis, or minimal, benefit from the IEP.
    The Supreme Court unanimously ruled to send the case back to the trial level. The district judge in the case, who had initially ruled in favor of the Douglas County School District, reversed his decision and ruled in favor of the parents of a child with autism.