Disability Law Commons^™

School Districts And Families Under The Idea: Collaborative In Theory, Adversarial In Fact, Debra Chopp

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article highlights the myriad forces that impede the realization of the IDEA's goals. Part II gives an overview of the history of special education and the special education process under the IDEA, particularly as it relates to the cooperative development of an individualized education program (IEP) for a disabled child. Part III examines features of the special education process that operate to the systematic detriment of parents, particularly low-income parents, and prevent them from securing an “appropriate education” for their children. What Part III does is assemble these critiques and add one that has not received attention: the ability …

Have The Amendments To The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Razed Rowley And Raised The Substantive Standard For "Free Appropriate Public Education?", Perry A. Zirkel

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Placing The Ball In Congress' Court: A Critical Analysis Of The Supreme Court's Decision In Arlington Central School District Board Of Education V. Murphy, 126 S. Ct. 2455 (2006), Ashlie D'Errico Surur

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

No abstract provided.

Delineating Administrative Exhaustion Requirements And Establishing Federal Courts' Jurisdiction Under The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act: Lessons From The Case Law And Proposals For Congressional Action , Lewis M. Wasserman

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), enacted through Congress's Spending Clause Power, is the principal federal statute aimed at insuring that children with disabilities receive a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) in the nation's public schools. The Act has spawned a substantial and growing body of litigation between parents and local and state educational agencies in federal and state courts during the last decade. During this period nearly 20%-21% of these cases have addressed the issue of exhaustion of IDEA's administrative remedies, and the related concern about federal courts' jurisdiction, when the law's exhaustion requirements have not been satisfied. …

School Bullying Victimization As An Educational Disability, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

Parts I and II of this essay urge school authorities, parents, and other concerned citizens to perceive bullying victimization as a disability that burdens targeted students. Since 1975, the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) has guaranteed “full educational opportunity to all children with disabilities” in every state. The IDEA reaches both congenital disabilities and disabilities that, like bullying victimization, stem from events or circumstances unrelated to biology or birth. To set the context for perceiving bullying victimization as an educational disability, Part I describes the public schools' central role in protecting bullied students, and then briefly discusses the …

No Child Left Behind And Special Education: The Need For Change In Legislation That Is Still Leving Some Students Behind, Stephanie S. Fitzgerald

Law Student Publications

In four parts, this article focuses on NCLB’s negative impact on special education. Part II outlines the provisions of NCLB and examines the differences between NCLB and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”). Part III provides a detailed explanation of the existing scholarly opinions in support of, and in disagreement with, NCLB. Part IV discusses the current political landscape and NCLB’s pending reauthorization. Finally, Part V, based on an analysis of the issues plaguing the current system, suggests a solution to improve the existing relationship between special education and NCLB. Furthermore, Part V addresses the positive aspects and possible …

The Sanctioning Authority Of Hearing Officers In Special Education Cases, Salma A. Khaleq

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA or the Act), children with disabilities are entitled to a free, appropriate public education (FAPE). The Act provides a procedural safeguard for children and their parents seeking to challenge a state or local educational agency's educational plan for the child in the form of a due process hearing presided over by a hearing officer or an administrative law judge (ALJ). This article describes the current case law concerning the authority of ALJs to sanction parties and attorneys for misconduct during these special education proceedings. Due to the limited number of cases available …

Judicial Clarity: Giving Teeth To The Application Of Federal Disability Laws In Charter Schools, Sarah Wieselthier Esq.

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Whose Choice Are We Talking About: The Exclusion Of Students With Disabilities From For-Profit Online Charter Schools, Matthew D. Bernstein

Richmond Journal of Law and the Public Interest

By examining the history of special education law against the emergence of the for-profit and online education movements, this paper explores the charter school movement from a consumer law perspective. It aims to explain why much of the current debate over test scores, "accountability," and teacher evaluation obscures other systemic fault lines that implicate the very reasons we have a public education system in the first place. In turn, the goal is to suggest solutions to some fundamental questions: in the twenty-first century, do we still need a public education system? What are our collective responsibilities to students? What does …

"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

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 …

Over The Borderline--A Review Of Margaret Price's Mad At School: Rhetorics Of Mental Disability And Academic Life, Gregory M. Duhl

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This Article is about “madness” in higher education. In Mad at School: Rhetorics of Mental Disability and Academic Life, Professor Margaret Price analyzes the rhetoric and discourse surrounding mental disabilities in academia. In this Article, I place Price’s work in a legal context, discussing why the Americans with Disabilities Act fails those with mental illness and why reform is needed to protect them. My own narrative as a law professor with Borderline Personality Disorder frames my critique. Narratives of mental illness are important because they help connect those who are often stigmatized and isolated due to mental illness and …

Individualized Education Programs And Special Education Programming For Students With Disabilities In Urban Schools, Mitchell Yell, Terrye Conroy, Antonis Katsiyannis, Tim Conroy

Faculty Publications

This Article examines the individualized education program (IEP) requirement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and presents a method for improving the education of students with disabilities in urban settings by appropriately developing IEPs. Part I considers the unique problems facing special education in urban school districts. Part II presents an overview of the IDEA and its requirement that school districts provide students with a free appropriate public education (FAPE). Part III examines the components of an IEP and the process for developing students’ IEPs------the key vehicle for providing a FAPE. Part IV outlines a process for developing …

Whose Choice Are We Talking About: The Exclusion Of Students With Disabilities From For-Profit Online Charter Schools, Matthew D. Bernstein

Richmond Public Interest Law Review

By examining the history of special education law against the emergence of the for-profit and online education movements, this paper explores the charter school movement from a consumer law perspective. It aims to explain why much of the current debate over test scores, "accountability," and teacher evaluation obscures other systemic fault lines that implicate the very reasons we have a public education system in the first place. In turn, the goal is to suggest solutions to some fundamental questions: in the twenty-first century, do we still need a public education system? What are our collective responsibilities to students? What does …

Online Mental Disability Law Education, A Disability Rights Tribunal, And The Creation Of An Asian Disability Law Database: Their Impact On Research, Training And Teaching Of Law, Criminology Criminal Justice In Asia, Michael L. Perlin, Heather Ellis Cucolo, Yoshikazu Ikehara

Articles & Chapters

Two professors at New York Law School (NYLS) and the director of the Tokyo Advocacy Law Office are engaged in initiatives with the potential to have major influences on the study of law, criminology, and criminal justice: the creation of a Disability Rights Tribunal for Asia and the Pacific (DRTAP), and expansion of NYLS’s online mental disability law program (OMDLP) to include numerous Asian venues.

DRTAP seeks to create a sub-regional body (a Commission and eventually a Court) to hear violations of the UN’s Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. This will explicitly inspire scholarship about issues such …

Cedar Rapids Community School District V. Garret F.: A High Price For Equal Education , Kristie Harding

Pepperdine Law Review

No abstract provided.

Bullying Victimization As A Disability In Public Elementary And Secondary Education, Douglas E. Abrams

Faculty Publications

This article discusses two reasons why likening bullying victimization to an educational disability makes sense. First, face-to-face bullying and cyberbullying impose on student victims the sort of educational deprivation that the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) addresses in the disabilities arena. Second, today’s belated public sensitivity to school bullying victims resembles the belated public sensitivity to students with disabilities that led to passage of the IDEA in 1975.

New Amendments To Resolving Special Education Disputes: Any Good Ideas?, Demetra Edwards

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

This article first analyzes the state of affairs under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), prior to the passage of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004, and the affects that the 1997 reauthorization alternative dispute resolution amendments had on special education law. Next, this article will address the appropriateness of the newly enacted negotiation and settlement methods, specifically the resolution session provision, and the benefits and detriments for resolving special education issues using these processes. This article will further discuss the amendments regarding attorneys' fees, and finally the House's failed proposal for voluntary binding arbitration and …

Available Dispute Resolution Processes Within The Reauthorized Individuals With Disabilities Education Improvement Act (Ideia) Of 2004: Where Do Mediation Principles Fit In? , Andrea F. Blau

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

The Individual Disabilities Education Act of 1997 first offered mediation processes to parents and school systems as an available dispute resolution process. Congress mandated that mediation be made available whenever a due process hearing was filed. The intent was to assist parents and school systems in resolving their differences regarding the educational needs for children with disabilities through increased discussions and collaborative efforts; this would reduce the need for costly and adversarial litigation. Alternative dispute resolution processes have taken an increasingly dominant role within the newly reauthorized IDEIA of 2004, reflecting Congressional promotion of parent and district collaboration for achieving …

School Districts And Families Under The Idea: Collaborative In Theory, Adversarial In Fact, Debra Chopp

Articles

To read the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is to be impressed with the ambition and promise of special education. The statute guarantees disabled students a "free appropriate public education" (FAPE) in the "least restrictive environment." At the core of this guarantee lies an entitlement for the parents of a disabled child to collaborate with teachers and school administrators to craft an educational program that is both tailored to the child's unique needs and designed to help her make progress in her education. This entitlement, and the IDEA generally, represents an enormous advance for children with disabilities--a community that, …

Racial Perspectives On Eligibility For Special Education For Students Of Color Who Are Struggling, Is Special Education A Potential Evil Or A Potential Good?, Jonathan Feldman

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Ending The Disconnect For The Deaf Community: How Amendments To The Federal Regulations Can Realign The Ada With Its Purpose, Hayley M. Koteen

Cardozo Arts & Entertainment Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Who’S The Boss?: The Need For Thoughtful Identification Of The Client(S) In Special Education Cases , Yael Zakai Cannon

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Learning Disability Mess, Ruth Colker

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

How Idea Fails Families Without Means: Causes And Corrections From The Frontlines Of Special Education, Elisa Hyman, Dean Hill Rivkin, Stephen A. Rosenbaum

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

The Gestalt Of The School-To-Prison Pipeline: The Duality Of Overrepresentation Of Minorities In Special Education And Racial Disparity In School Discipline On Minorities, Torin D. Togut

American University Journal of Gender, Social Policy & the Law

No abstract provided.

Missing The Forest For The Trees: Forest Grove School District V. T.A., Theresa Kraft

The University of New Hampshire Law Review

[Excerpt] “The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) guarantees children who qualify as children with disabilities the right to receive a free appropriate public education (FAPE). There are many points at which parents and school districts may disagree regarding the provision of a FAPE, but as the U.S. Supreme Court has determined in Forest Grove School District v. T.A., when parents and a school district disagree regarding whether children should be identified as children with disabilities, an appropriate remedy could be tuition reimbursement.”

Standard Of Care For Students With Disabilities: The Intersection Of Liability Under The Idea And Tort Theories, Ralph D. Mawdsley J.D., Ph.D.

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Access Granted: The Winkelman Case Ushers In A New Era In Parental Advocacy, Laura Mcneal

Brigham Young University Education and Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Vouchers For Students With Disabilities: The Future Of Special Education?, Wendy F. Hensel

Faculty Publications By Year

Many voices over the last decade have called for reform in special education in American public schools. As the number of those receiving services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) has grown, scholars and pundits have increasingly argued that the system not only is failing to meet the needs of many children with disabilities, but in some cases is actively causing harm to those it is intended to serve.

Over the last several years, an increasing number of state legislatures have proposed or have passed laws that give children with disabilities public money to attend a private school. …