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Articles 1 - 14 of 14
Full-Text Articles in Law
Meaningful Access And Disability Discrimination: The Role Of Social Science And Other Empirical Evidence, Mark Weber
Meaningful Access And Disability Discrimination: The Role Of Social Science And Other Empirical Evidence, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
In cases alleging disability discrimination in the provision of state and local government services, courts frequently hold that plaintiffs’ claims depend on the question whether, despite the disadvantage that government actions impose, the plaintiffs nevertheless receive meaningful access to the government services. Whether people with disabilities actually have meaningful access is in reality a factual question, one on which social science and other empirically supported facts should matter. But courts frequently ignore evidence about the nature and level of access that people with disabilities have to government programs when decisions regarding those programs are being challenged. This Article catalogues judicial …
Immigration And Disability In The United States And Canada, Mark Weber
Immigration And Disability In The United States And Canada, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
Disability arises from the dynamic between people’s physical and mental conditions andthe physical and attitudinal barriers in the environment. Applying this idea aboutdisability to United States and Canadian immigration law draws attention to barriers toentry and eventual citizenship for individuals who have disabilities. Historically, NorthAmerican law excluded many classes of immigrants, including those with intellectualdisabilities, mental illness, physical defects, and conditions likely to cause dependency.Though exclusions for individuals likely to draw excessive public resources and thosewith communicable diseases still exist in Canada and the United States, in recent yearsthe United States permitted legalization for severely disabled undocumented immigrantsalready in the …
In Defense Of Idea Due Process, Mark Weber
In Defense Of Idea Due Process, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
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 …
"All Areas Of Suspected Disability", Mark Weber
"All Areas Of Suspected Disability", Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires school districts to assess children “in all areas of suspected disability.” It further provides that each child’s individualized education program (IEP) must contain measurable annual goals designed to “meet each of the child’s . . . educational needs that result from the child’s disability,” and a statement of special education and related services that will be provided for the child “to advance appropriately toward attaining annual goals.” Courts have strictly enforced these requirements in the last several years, remedying violations of IDEA when school districts fail to assess in all areas of …
"All Areas Of Suspected Disability", Mark Weber
"All Areas Of Suspected Disability", Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires school districts to assess children “in all areas of suspected disability.” It further provides that each child’s individualized education program (IEP) must contain measurable annual goals designed to “meet each of the child’s . . . educational needs that result from the child’s disability,” and a statement of special education and related services that will be provided for the child “to advance appropriately toward attaining annual goals.” Courts have strictly enforced these requirements in the last several years, remedying violations of IDEA when school districts fail to assess in all areas of …
Procedures And Remedies Under Section 504 And The Ada For Public School Children With Disabilities, Mark Weber
Procedures And Remedies Under Section 504 And The Ada For Public School Children With Disabilities, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
Much has been written about procedures and remedies under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, but few scholars have explored procedural rights and corresponding mechanisms of administrative and judicial relief for victims of public schools’ violations of children’s rights under section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act. This paper will discuss the administrative procedures that must be followed in hearings regarding complaints of violations of those laws by public school districts and the relief that hearing officers and courts may provide. It will begin with an update on developments regarding …
Disability Rights, Welfare Law, Mark Weber
Disability Rights, Welfare Law, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
This article asks how disability rights ideas can be reconciled with—and might transform—the law of public assistance. The social model of disability forms the basis of most disability rights thinking. This model recognizes that impairments do not by themselves disable, but disability instead arises from a dynamic between a person’s physical and mental conditions and society’s environmental and attitudinal barriers: Paraplegia does not cause disability but for stairs, curbs, and human attitudes that limit accessibility. The social model focuses on changing the environment; its close corollary, the civil rights approach to disability, looks to anti-discrimination law to remove limits on …
A New Look At Section 504 And The Ada In Special Education Cases, Mark Weber
A New Look At Section 504 And The Ada In Special Education Cases, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
School districts are finding fewer children eligible for services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). At the same time Congress has expanded the number of children who are protected by section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). These developments present the largely unexplored question of what obligations school districts owe children who have disabilities and are protected under section 504 and the ADA, but who are not eligible for services under IDEA. This article concludes that these children must be provided an education that meets their needs as adequately …
Settling Idea Cases: Making Up Is Hard To Do, Mark Weber
Settling Idea Cases: Making Up Is Hard To Do, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
Like most other legal disputes, most cases brought under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) settle. But although IDEA, the federal law governing special education, was enacted a generation ago, litigants still lack guidance how the mechanisms of settlement should work, what the settlement agreement should look like, and what to do if one side of the dispute fails to live up to its agreement. Settling an IDEA case entails unique issues—and unique pitfalls—that make the topic even more challenging than the settlement of other cases. IDEA has a mediation provision with extensive requirements and a one-of-a-kind prehearing settlement …
Special Education From The (Damp) Ground Up: Children With Disabilities In A Charter School-Dependent Educational System, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
Hurricane Katrina created the need and the opportunity to reconstitute the New Orleans public school system. Educational reformers took advantage of the destruction of existing institutions to build a new system based on educational choice and dependent on charter schools to provide the choices. The disaster also created the need and opportunity to rebuild the system of special education in the city, but education for children with disabilities appears to have been an afterthought. Reports have surfaced of children being steered away from charter schools or inadequately served there. This paper asks what principles should guide reformers in establishing education …
Unreasonable Accommodation And Due Hardship, Mark Weber
Unreasonable Accommodation And Due Hardship, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
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 Weber
The Idea Eligibility Mess, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
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 …
Disability Rights, Disability Discrimination, And Social Insurance, Mark Weber
Disability Rights, Disability Discrimination, And Social Insurance, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
This paper asks whether statutory social insurance programs, which provide contributory tax-based income support to people with disabilities, are compatible with the disability rights movement's ideas. Central to the movement that led to the Americans with Disabilities Act is the insight that physical or mental conditions do not disable; barriers created by the environment or by social attitudes keep persons with physical or mental differences from participating in society as equals. The conflict between the civil rights approach and insurance seems apparent. A person takes out insurance to deal with tragedy, such as premature death, or damage, such as accidental …
Reflections On The New Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act, Mark Weber
Reflections On The New Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act, Mark Weber
College of Law Faculty
The new Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act leaves the basics of federal special education law intact, but makes important changes along the periphery. Special education is now much more closely aligned with the No Child Left Behind initiative. The new law allocates funds for the education of children not yet found eligible for special education and pushes school districts to provide services to special education-eligible children in religious and other private schools. It changes eligibility determination rules for children with learning disabilities. It alters dispute resolution procedures. Finally, it makes disciplinary procedures somewhat harsher for children with disabilities, while …