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In Defense Of Idea Due Process, Mark C. Weber
In Defense Of Idea Due Process, Mark C. Weber
Mark C. Weber
Due Process hearing rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act are under attack. A major professional group and several academic commentators charge that the hearings system advantages middle class parents, that it is expensive, that it is futile, and that it is unmanageable. Some critics would abandon individual rights to a hearing and review in favor of bureaucratic enforcement or administrative mechanisms that do not include the right to an individual hearing before a neutral decision maker. This Article defends the right to a due process hearing. It contends that some criticisms of hearing rights are simply erroneous, and …
Common-Law Interpretation Of Appropriate Education: The Road Not Taken In Rowley, Mark C. Weber
Common-Law Interpretation Of Appropriate Education: The Road Not Taken In Rowley, Mark C. Weber
Mark C. Weber
Thirty years old in 2012, Board of Education v. Rowley is the case that established a some-benefit or floor-of-opportunity standard for the services public school districts must provide to children who have disabilities. But the some-benefit approach is by no means the only one the Court could have adopted. It could have endorsed the view of the lower courts that each child with a disability must be given the opportunity to achieve his or her potential commensurate with the opportunity offered other children. Or it could have adopted a standard based on achievement of the child’s full potential or the …
Unreasonable Accommodation And Due Hardship, Mark C. Weber
Unreasonable Accommodation And Due Hardship, Mark C. Weber
Mark C. Weber
This Article analyzes authoritative sources concerning the Americans with Disabilities Act accommodation requirement and concludes: (1) Reasonable accommodation and undue hardship are two sides of the same coin. The statutory duty is accommodation up to the limit of hardship, and reasonable accommodation should not be a separate hurdle for claimants to surmount apart from the undue hardship defense. There is no such thing as “unreasonable accommodation” or “due hardship.” (2) The duty to accommodate is a substantial obligation, one that may be expensive to satisfy, and one that is not subject to a cost-benefits balance, but rather a cost-resources balance; …
The Idea Eligibility Mess, Mark C. Weber
The Idea Eligibility Mess, Mark C. Weber
Mark C. Weber
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees students with disabilities a free public education appropriate to their needs, but students must meet the definition of “child with a disability” to be eligible for that entitlement. The law governing special education eligibility, however, is charitably characterized as a mess. There are several sources of the current eligibility confusion. First, recent court cases have reached conflicting conclusions about how much adverse educational impact the child’s disabling condition must have, what constitutes a sufficient need for special education, and when children with emotional disabilities are eligible. Second, long-established methods for assessing learning …