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Full-Text Articles in Education

The Legal Impact Of Emerging Governance Models On Public Education And Its Office Holders, Robert A. Garda Jr., David Doty Jan 2013

The Legal Impact Of Emerging Governance Models On Public Education And Its Office Holders, Robert A. Garda Jr., David Doty

Robert A. Garda

The idea that changing the formal structure of governance can lead to better schools is rooted in American political and intellectual history. Politicians, career educators, parents, business leaders, and investors continue to wrangle over the control of public schools all across the country. With these battles for control have come more lawsuits, more laws, and more administrative regulations dictating the governance structures of educational institutions. Indeed, one could argue that, in recent years, debates over how schools and school districts should be governed have subsumed the curriculum debates over how and what children should be taught. Leadership matters, and therefore …


Disabled Students' Rights Of Access To Charter Schools Under The Idea, Section 504 And The Ada, Robert A. Garda Jr. Jan 2012

Disabled Students' Rights Of Access To Charter Schools Under The Idea, Section 504 And The Ada, Robert A. Garda Jr.

Robert A. Garda

Charter schools are under increasing attack for denying admission to disabled students. But traditional schools also turn away disabled students, often preventing them from attending schools in their neighborhood or within their district. This Article discusses when a school is permitted under federal disability law to deny admission to a disabled student. After nearly four decades of special education jurisprudence and regulatory guidance, the circumstances under which a student with a disability may be denied admission to a particular school are still remarkably unclear. This Article first discusses the "zero-reject" principle underlying the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and concludes …


The Result Of Fitzgerald V. Barnstable School Committee On Special Education Law, Arthur Lang Jan 2011

The Result Of Fitzgerald V. Barnstable School Committee On Special Education Law, Arthur Lang

Arthur Lang

The Individuals with Disabilities Educational Act (IDEA) requires that states receiving federal funds provide a Free and Appropriate Education (FAPE) to students with disabilities. Failing to provide a FAPE is discriminatory under the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, the Rehabilitations Act (RA), and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). The IDEA provides remedies to correct inadequacies with compensatory but does not provide compensatory damages. Parents dissatisfied with the adequacy of the education of a child with special needs have tried to bypass this, using §1983 to seek damages for an inadequate education under the IDEA and under the …


The Politics Of Education Reform: Lessons Learned From New Orleans, Robert A. Garda Jr. Jan 2011

The Politics Of Education Reform: Lessons Learned From New Orleans, Robert A. Garda Jr.

Robert A. Garda

Hurricane Katrina demolished the educational facilities and state leaders took the opportunity to raze the broken educational governance structures in New Orleans. Leaders re-created the Orleans Parish School District based on the education reforms sweeping the nation: school choice, accountability, state takeover of failing schools, and charter schools. The city is now the proving ground for modern education reforms and policymakers from around the country are watching closely. The mistakes made and lessons learned in New Orleans since Hurricane Katrina can act as a roadmap for states and districts moving toward the “new” education model - choice plans, charter schools …


The White Interest In School Integration, Robert A. Garda Jr. Jan 2011

The White Interest In School Integration, Robert A. Garda Jr.

Robert A. Garda

Scholarship concerning desegregation, affirmative action and voluntary integration is primarily, if not exclusively, focused on whether such policies harm or benefit minorities. Scant attention is paid to the benefits whites receive in multiracial schools despite these interests underpinning over thirty years of Supreme Court integration jurisprudence. In this article, I explore the academic and social benefits whites receive in multiracial schools, and I do so from a white parent’s perspective. The article begins by explaining the interest-convergence theory and how white interests explain the course and content of the Supreme Court’s desegregation jurisprudence. White parents must understand that their “buy-in” …


The Economics Of Section 170: A Case For The Charitable Deduction Of Parochial School Tuition, Meir Katz Jan 2011

The Economics Of Section 170: A Case For The Charitable Deduction Of Parochial School Tuition, Meir Katz

Meir Katz

That payments for parochial school tuition are not deductible under Section 170 of the Internal Revenue Code is a foregone conclusion in the eyes of many tax policy scholars. Tuition provides an easy case because the donor receives something of great value in return for his donation: the education of his children. This Article questions that conclusion. By taking a close look at the economics behind these tuition payments in the context of a discrete population, the religious Jewish community, I show that traditional economic assumptions are inappropriate for analysis of those payments. Rather than a traditional economic exchange for …


Introduction To Symposium On Reconstructing Education In New Orleans Post-Katrina, Robert A. Garda Jr. Jan 2010

Introduction To Symposium On Reconstructing Education In New Orleans Post-Katrina, Robert A. Garda Jr.

Robert A. Garda

No abstract provided.


Who Is Eligible Under The Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act?, Robert A. Garda Jr. Jan 2006

Who Is Eligible Under The Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act?, Robert A. Garda Jr.

Robert A. Garda

Determining who is eligible under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) has plagued decision-makers for over three decades, leading to both over- and under-identification of eligible children and the disproportionate identification of minority students as disabled. The statutory requirements for finding a child IDEA-eligible appear straightforward: a child must have an enumerated disability that adversely affects educational performance and by reason thereof the child must need special education. Application of these provisions has proven problematic, however, and the authorities are divided as to what constitutes “educational performance,” when is it “adversely affected” by the disability, under what circumstances …


The New Idea: Shifting Educational Paradigms To Achieve Racial Equality In Special Education, Robert A. Garda Jr. Jan 2005

The New Idea: Shifting Educational Paradigms To Achieve Racial Equality In Special Education, Robert A. Garda Jr.

Robert A. Garda

African American students are being re-segregated in today's public schools by their disproportionate placement in special education classes for the disabled pursuant to the Individuals With Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA). At the same time, the overall number of children found disabled and entitled to special education under the Act has skyrocketed over the past decade, leaving special education classes with swollen roles and inadequate resources. Congress attempts to remedy this divisive dual eligibility crisis when it re-authorized the IDEA in 2004 by promoting an educational paradigm of individualized instruction in general education. The new IDEA seeks to "fix" special …


Untangling Eligibility Requirements Under The Individuals With Disabilities In Education Act, Robert A. Garda Jr. Jan 2004

Untangling Eligibility Requirements Under The Individuals With Disabilities In Education Act, Robert A. Garda Jr.

Robert A. Garda

Finding a child eligible for special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is one of the most important, if not the most important, decision that will be made in that child's life. Despite the importance of eligibility determinations the eligibility criteria of IDEA are intricately tangled and often misapplied by courts, hearing officers and inevitably parents and educators. The confusion surrounding eligibility standards leads to the disastrous results of both over-identification and under-identification of IDEA eligible children. This Article attempts to untangle the web of IDEA eligibility standards in order to determine who is entitled to its …