Education Law Commons^™

The Mainstreaming Requirement Of The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act In The Context Of Autistic Spectrum Disorders, Conor B. Mcdonough, Ph.D.

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Children with autism or one of the related autistic spectrum disorders ("ASD") are eligible for special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"), which provides, in part, that disabled students must be educated with non-disabled peers as often as possible, a practice referred to as mainstreaming or inclusion. The federal circuit courts apply different tests to evaluate compliance with this mainstreaming requirement, but as argued in this Note, the circuit tests are effectively equivalent with respect to children diagnosed with ASDs. One significant issue in applying each of these tests is that tensions exist between the mainstreaming requirement …