Disability Law Commons^™

Every Day Counts: Proposals To Reform The Idea's Due Process Structure, Elizabeth Shaver

Elizabeth Shaver

It is a core principle of special education legislation that the parents of children with disabilities can challenge the child’s educational programming through an administrative due process hearing. Yet, for years the special education due process structure has been criticized as inefficient, anti-collaborative, and prohibitively expensive. Those criticisms have given rise to widely varying proposals to reform special education due process, proposals that range from adding certain alternative dispute resolution mechanisms to a wholesale replacement of the due process structure.

This article provides a comprehensive analysis of special education dispute resolution. The article first examines the lively debate among scholars …

Should States Ban The Use Of Non-Positive Interventions In Special Education? Re-Examining Positive Behavior Supports Under The Idea, Elizabeth Shaver

Elizabeth Shaver

In the 1980s and 1990s, behavior analysts vigorously debated ethical concerns about the use of certain behavioral interventions to address severe behavior of disabled children. In 1997, while that debate was still ongoing, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was amended to require educators to consider the use of “positive behavioral interventions and supports,” among other strategies, to address problem behavior that impedes a disabled child’s learning. Since 1997, the “positive behavioral interventions and supports” framework has shifted focus, but IDEA’s language essentially has stayed the same. In addition, some states have enacted poorly-worded statutes or regulations in order …