Disability Law Commons^™

The Legal Boundaries For Impartiality Of Idea Hearing Officers: An Update, Perry A. Zirkel

Pepperdine Dispute Resolution Law Journal

Special education has become a significant area of litigation in the K-12 school context. The impartial hearing officer (“IHO”) is the fulcrum of the adjudicative process under the Individuals with Disabilities Act (“IDEA”). However, the IDEA only provides for two standards for impartiality while the framework of remaining standards are left—via the IDEA’s structure of “cooperative federalism”—to state laws. Ultimately, the courts serve as the chief cartographer for the legal boundaries of IDEA IHO impartiality in their interpretation, gap-filling, and application of the federal and state framework. The previous research relating at least in part to IDEA IHO impartiality is …

"Pistol Shots Ring Out In The Barroom Night": Bob Dylan's "Hurricane" As An Exam (Or Course) In Criminal Procedure, Michael L. Perlin

Articles & Chapters

Bob Dylan wrote the song Hurricane to draw the public’s attention to the conviction of the boxer, Rubin “Hurricane” Carter, for a crime (multiple murders) which Carter did not commit. Dylan’s song – and its performance as a part of Dylan’s fabled Rolling Thunder Tour – brought significant public attention to this case (and the miscarriage of justice it reflected), and eventually led to the granting of federal habeas corpus (a decision affirmed by the Third Circuit) and the freeing of Carter from state prison in New Jersey. The song takes the listener from the facts of the crime, through …

Acknowledgments, Matthew T. Wappett Ph.D.

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

No abstract provided.

A Self-Advocate’S Perspective On The Covid-19 Pandemic, D.R. Reff

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

This article summarizes the experience of a self-advocate from Idaho during the COVID pandemic. This article addresses issues of social isolation, mental health, and social supports.

Using Quality Improvement (Qi)-Focused Evaluation To Redesign Direct Home- And Community-Based Services During The Covid-19 Public Health Emergency:, Marcia Moriarta, Anthony Cahill, Heidi Fredine

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Like many UCEDDs in the Developmental Disabilities (DD) network, the Center for Development and Disability at the University of New Mexico offers direct service programs in home and community settings. Before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, services were delivered in-person to about 1,000 families across the state including clients with intellectual or developmental disabilities and/or from at-risk communities. In March 2020, due to the spread of COVID-19, a public health emergency was declared in New Mexico and home and community services were stopped throughout the state. This meant direct service programs at the Center had to turn to telehealth …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Disability Services And Systems: Perspectives From The Field, Ronda Jenson, John Tschida

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

No abstract provided.

Perspectives Of Immigrant Families And Persons With Disabilities During Covid-19, Diana Rodriguez Lmsw, Kathleen Mcgrath Msw

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

Background: The health, economic, social, political, and psychological consequences of COVID-19 have been deeply felt on a global level. Persons with disabilities, including those from Hispanic/Latino immigrant communities, have faced unique challenges during both the peak and fallout of the pandemic. Throughout both the United States and New York City, COVID-19 has disproportionately affected communities of color. However, the impact of COVID-19 on persons with disabilities among immigrant and communities of color is still unfolding.

Aims: In this paper, we aim to better understand the compounded stress of the COVID-19 pandemic experienced by immigrant families who have a child with …

Increasing Access To Augmentative And Alternative Communication Services For People With Complex Communication Needs During Covid-19 And Beyond, Cristina L. Pujol, Anamaria Nevares, Michelle Schladant

Developmental Disabilities Network Journal

The COVID-19 global pandemic has affected the disability network across the world. In the United States, there are millions of people who cannot use their natural speech to communicate. Augmentative and alternative communication (AAC), a form of assistive technology (AT), helps people with complex communication needs (CCNs) to communicate with others. Examples of AAC include printed pictures and speech-generating devices. A team of professionals work together with the person with CCNs and their caregivers to choose the right type of AAC. Often, people with CCNs need face-to-face and ongoing AAC support. Prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, this population already faced …

When Justice Should Precede Generosity: The Case Against Charitable Immunity In Arkansas, Courtney Jane Baltz

Arkansas Law Notes

This Comment discusses various aspects of the modern hospital and examines charitable immunity’s incompatibility with modern law.

First, Part II explains the historical justifications for immunity and presents the doctrine’s landscape in the United States. Part III examines the role precedent plays in continuing to adhere to the rule of immunity. Part IV takes an in-depth approach of the big business of hospitals by evaluating various financial aspects of charitable hospitals. Part V explores the reality of charitable immunity falling out of touch with concepts of modern law. Part VI takes a more specific look at the application of the …

State Laws For Due Process Hearings Under The Individuals With Disabilities Education Act Iii: The Pre-Hearing Stage, Andrew M.I. Lee, Perry A. Zirkel

Journal of the National Association of Administrative Law Judiciary

This article is the third in a triad of analyses of state law additions to the basic requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) for due process hearings (DPHs). The first two articles of this series covered the hearing and post-hearing stages of IDEA DPHs. The purpose of this follow-up analysis is to supplement the earlier articles by canvassing state law provisions specific to the pre-hearing stage. After an introduction and overview of the literature, this article covers IDEA foundational requirements for DPHs, and then summarizes and codes the state law provisions that supplement the federal template. As …

The Constitutionality Of The Black Lung Interim Presumption, Stella B. House

Journal of Natural Resources & Environmental Law

No abstract provided.

Protecting The Rights And Wellbeing Of People With Disabilities During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Elizabeth Pendo

Chapters in Books

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated significant inequities experienced by people with disabilities. It has also emphasized the value of legal protections against discrimination based on disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted 30 years ago to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities and ensure equal opportunity across major areas of American life (ADA, 2008). Together with an earlier law, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Rehabilitation Act, 2012), this landmark civil rights law impacts a broad range of issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic and protects a large and growing number of Americans. This Chapter focuses on application …

Applying The Health Justice Framework To Address Health And Health Care Inequities Experienced By People With Disabilities During And After Covid-19, Robyn M. Powell

Washington Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic has been especially devastating for people with disabilities, as well as other socially marginalized communities. Indeed, an emerging body of scholarship has revealed that people with disabilities are experiencing striking disparities. In particular, scholars have shined a light on state and hospital triage policies that allow hospitals to ration critical health care and resources, such as ventilators, for people with disabilities if resources become limited and they cannot treat all patients during the pandemic. These injustices deserve extensive consideration from policymakers, legal professionals, and scholars.

Elucidating how the inequities that people with disabilities experience during the COVID-19 …

Expanding Therapeutic Jurisprudence Across The Federal Judiciary, Benjamin Barsky, Heather Ellis Cucolo, Dominic Sisti

Articles & Chapters

A patchwork of drug courts and other problem-solving courts currently exists to divert individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders away from the criminal justice system. We call for a broader implementation of problem-solving courts, particularly at the federal level, that would operate according to the principles of therapeutic jurisprudence (i.e., a framework that aims to maximize the health benefits of judicial and legislative policies and practices). Expanding federal problem-solving courts will better serve individuals with mental illness and substance use disorders in the federal criminal justice system and allow them to benefit from rehabilitation and diversion programs. This …

The Lost Promise Of Disability Rights, Claire Raj

Michigan Law Review

Children with disabilities are among the most vulnerable students in public schools. They are the most likely to be bullied, harassed, restrained, or segregated. For these and other reasons, they also have the poorest academic outcomes. Overcoming these challenges requires full use of the laws enacted to protect these students’ affirmative right to equal access and an environment free from discrimination. Yet, courts routinely deny their access to two such laws—the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (section 504).

Courts too often overlook the affirmative obligations contained in these two disability rights …

Substance Use As A Second Class Disability: A Survey Of The Ada's Disarmament Of Individuals In Recovery, Ryan Schmitz

Maine Law Review

The Americans with Disabilities Act and Fair Housing Act are landmark statutes that afford essential protections to individuals with disabilities in the foundational areas of everyday life. Despite their recognition of substance use disorders as disabilities, these statutes deny protection to individuals who are either in active use or in the early stages of their recovery. This Article explores the dangers posed by the “current use exception” and surveys the case law to determine the extent of the harms done to individuals with disabilities who seek to vindicate the rights purportedly guaranteed to them by the Americans with Disabilities Act …

Criminalization And Normalization: Some Thoughts About Offenders With Serious Mental Illness, Richard C. Boldt

Faculty Scholarship

Response to Professor E. Lea Johnston, Reconceptualizing Criminal Justice Reform for Offenders with Serious Mental Illness

Abstract

While Professor Johnston is persuasive that clinical factors such as diagnosis and treatment history are not, in most cases, predictive by themselves of criminal behavior, her concession that those clinical factors are associated with a constellation of risks and needs that are predictive of criminal system involvement complicates her efforts to maintain a clear boundary between the criminalization theory and the normalization thesis. Indeed, Professor Johnston’s article contains a brief section in which she identifies “possible justifications” for the specialized programs that are …

Foreword To The Symposium: Jewish Law In Comparative Context, Samuel J. Levine

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tennessee State Plan On Aging, Oct. 1, 2021-Sept. 30, 2025, Tennessee. Commission On Aging And Disability

State Plans

The Tennessee State Plan on Aging for provides policy makers, service providers, and the general population with appropriate data about trends and implications for the current aging population as well as the impact of the increase in the aging population due to the aging baby boomer generation.

Because I Said So: The (Re)Production Of White, Ableist Narratives Through Legal Discourse In Endrew F. V. Douglas County Re-1, Stephen F. Fusco

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

As families and advocates of students of color labeled with dis/abilities face mounting inequities they turn to the courts seeking protection. Unfortunately, even after courts issue written decisions ostensibly designed to protect students labeled dis/abled, these students continue to experience systematic oppression in school. This is due, in part, to the discourse used by the courts when addressing issues affecting students labeled dis/abled and the elitism of the judicial system. The purpose of this study was to examine the legal discourse used in the most recent Supreme Court case concerning the education of students labeled dis/abled, Endrew F. v. Douglas …

The Deliberate Indifference Standard: A Broken Promise To Protect And Serve The Mentally Ill, Katherine R. Carroll

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Socio-Legal Framework For Improving The Accessibility Of Research Articles For People With Disabilities, Brian Wentz, Jonathan Lazar, Paul T. Jaeger, Ursula Gorham

Journal of Business & Technology Law

No abstract provided.

Protecting The Rights And Wellbeing Of People With Disabilities During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Elizabeth Pendo

All Faculty Scholarship

The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed and exacerbated significant inequities experienced by people with disabilities. It has also emphasized the value of legal protections against discrimination based on disability. The Americans with Disabilities Act was enacted 30 years ago to eliminate discrimination against people with disabilities and ensure equal opportunity across major areas of American life (ADA, 2008). Together with an earlier law, the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 Rehabilitation Act, 2012), this landmark civil rights law impacts a broad range of issues raised by the COVID-19 pandemic and protects a large and growing number of Americans. This Chapter focuses on application …

White V. Hesse: Challenging An Oklahoma County's Bail Practices Under The Americans With Disabilities Act And The Rehabilitation Act, Andrew Hamm

Celebrating WCL Student Authors

No abstract provided.

Employees With Intellectual Disabilities During The Covid-19 Pandemic: New Directions For Disability Anti-Discrimination Law?, Leslie P. Francis

Oklahoma Law Review

No abstract provided.

An Update On Gambling Disorder, Neuroscience, And The Law, Stacey A. Tovino

Faculty Articles

No abstract provided.

Food Allergy Bullying As Disability Harassment: Holding Schools Accountable, D'Andra Millsap Shu

University of Colorado Law Review

Millions of American schoolchildren of all ages suffer from food allergies, and increasingly, bullies target these children because of their allergies. If a bully exposes a victim to an allergen, food allergy bullying can sicken or kill within minutes. Food allergy bullying is already responsible for many hospitalizations and at least one death. Most food allergy bullying happens at school, and schools play a crucial part in addressing and preventing bullying. All too often, though, schools fail to take appropriate action. Sovereign immunity and other obstacles insulate public schools from liability in many instances, but federal disability law may provide …

Dissing Ability, Tory L. Lucas

Lewis & Clark Law Review

People with disabilities have historically endured the horrors of exclusion and elimination because America has incessantly fixated on disability without seeing ability. To correct a disabling view of people with disabilities, this Article prescribes a paradigm shift that permanently redirects the focus from disability to ability. If America achieves this hopeful vision to no longer diss—or disrespect—ability, then people with disabilities will enjoy equal access to equal opportunity.

Improving The Legal And Regulatory Framework Of Restraint And Seclusion In D.C. Public Schools, James Gallagher

Upper Level Writing Requirement Research Papers

No abstract provided.

Leave Your Stereotypes At The Door: The Importance Of Context In The Halls Of Congress And The Garden Of Torah, Rabbi Michael Levy

Touro Law Review

No abstract provided.