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Does The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Exclude Gifted And Talented Children With Emotional Disabilities - An Analysis Of J.D. V. Pawlet., Laura Ketterman

St. Mary's Law Journal

Disabled children benefit from federal legislation which guarantees a free, appropriate education. While no federal mandate requires providing special education for gifted and talented children, the government encourages schools to offer gifted and talented programs. Gifted and talented children with emotional disabilities, however, often fall between these two groups and do not qualify for special education under any legislation. Unfortunately, in many gifted and talented children with disabilities the gift hides the disability—or the disability hides the gift. To compound the problem, legislation and recent court decisions fail to recognize that gifted and talented children have unique needs which should …