Interested in reading special education cases? Here is a timeline of some of the more important cases.
Think back to your high school civics class. We have three branches of federal government. The Legislative Branch is known as Congress (Senate and House of Representatives). The US Congress passed IDEA 2004. Then there is the Executive Branch. That's the President and the 5 million people who work for him/her. In the Executive Branch, we find the US Department of Education. They must enforce the law that Congress passed. The also promulgate regulations that are consistent with the law. The third branch is the Judicial Branch. It includes the US Supreme Court that has 9 Justices. They interpret laws according to the Constitution. The federal judicial system also has lower courts located in each state to hear cases involving federal issues. These special education cases have been decided by courts, based on the law that Congress passed.
Think back to your high school civics class. We have three branches of federal government. The Legislative Branch is known as Congress (Senate and House of Representatives). The US Congress passed IDEA 2004. Then there is the Executive Branch. That's the President and the 5 million people who work for him/her. In the Executive Branch, we find the US Department of Education. They must enforce the law that Congress passed. The also promulgate regulations that are consistent with the law. The third branch is the Judicial Branch. It includes the US Supreme Court that has 9 Justices. They interpret laws according to the Constitution. The federal judicial system also has lower courts located in each state to hear cases involving federal issues. These special education cases have been decided by courts, based on the law that Congress passed.
Case
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Impact
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1954
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Can be viewed as the first LRE case! Segregated public schools are
inherently unequal.
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1967
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IQ tests used to track
students were culturally biased because they were standardized on a white,
middle-class sample. It is unconstitutional as it discriminates against low
income or African American students.
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1969
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First Amendment rights are available to teachers and students, subject
to application in light of the special characteristics of the school
environment.
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1970
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Assessments must be non-biased and given in student's native language.
In two landmark California cases, Diana v. State Board of Ed in 1970 and
Larry P. v. Wilson Riles in 1971, plaintiffs complained about the
disproportionately high minority enrollments in EMR (Educable Mentally
Retarded) classrooms. Plaintiffs’ victory resulted in changes in the identification
of students with the EMR label and their programs.
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1972
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“Expert testimony in this action indicates that all mentally retarded
persons are capable of benefiting from a program of education and training…
It is the Commonwealth’s obligation to place each mentally retarded child in
a free, public program of education and training appropriate to the child’s
capacity.”
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1972
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Mills expanded the impact of the P.A.R.C. case beyond children with
developmental disabilities. Must provide services regardless of district's
ability to pay.
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1979
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Students with disabilities may be entitled to extended school year.
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1979
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IQ tests were most likely culturally biased, assuming in effect that
black children were less intelligent than white children. African American
students can no longer be forced into EMR (Educable Mentally Retarded) classes
via discriminatory testing.
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1979
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Class action lawsuit regarding insufficient and discriminatory
evaluation procedures which led to inappropriate school placements. The case led
to defined timeline requirements for identification, referral, and
evaluation, development of the program and placement of education.
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1981
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Class action law suit resulted in changes
in assessment practices, including pre-referral intervention, curriculum
based assessment, and in-service training for assessment staff.
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1982
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First special education case. US Supreme Court defines FAPE. See
Endrew F case in 2017 for undated ruling on FAPE.
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1983
Abrahamson vs. Hershman 701 F.2d 223
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If a student with a disability requires residential placement then
the school district must provide it
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1984
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"Congressional preference for educating handicapped children in
classrooms with their peers is made unmistakably clear."
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1984
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Court’s first attempt to define the distinction between “school
health services” and “medical services.” Related services include health
services that do not require a licensed physician.
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1984
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School must pay for necessary residential placements
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1985
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Government cannot zone group homes out of neighborhoods. The denial
of the permit was based on irrational prejudice against individuals with
intellectual disabilities, thus invalid under the Equal Protection Clause of
the Fourteenth Amendment.
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1985
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Parents cannot be forced to waive their right to reimbursement if
they place their child in an alternative school from the one recommended in
the IEP. Parents who unilaterally change their child’s placement do so at
their own financial risk, but they may be reimbursed if the placement is
deemed to be an appropriate available option.
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1988
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Zero rejection – a core principal of IDEA, must be adhered to.
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1988
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School discipline case. U.S. Supreme Court clarified procedural
issues designed to protect children with disabilities. Schools cannot not
expel students for behaviors related to their disabilities.
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1989
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Least Restrictive Environment - FAPE means student has right to be
educated with their non-disabled peers to the maximum extent possible
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1993
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District may pay for student services if needed even when the student
with a disability attends a Catholic school without violating separation of
church and state.
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1993
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If schools do not provide FAPE and a private school does, the parents
are entitled to reimbursement, even if the placement is not a state approved
special education school.
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1993
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The presumption is that the student with a disability will be
included with supplementary aids and services because it is “a fundamental
value of the right to public education for children with disabilities.” If
placement outside the classroom is necessary, the school district must then
include the child in as many school programs with children who do not have
disabilities “to the maximum extent appropriate.”
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1994
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Landmark victory regarding the right of students with disabilities to
be educated alongside their nondisabled peers.
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1999
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The exception for "medical services" from IDEA's related
services provision only if services must be provided by a physician.
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2001
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Absent some sort of resolution on the merits, or a judicial
determination altering the legal position of the parties, attorney’s fees are
not warranted.
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2002
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A school voucher program is not in violation of the Establishment
Clause even though the vast majority of participating private schools are
affiliated to a religious group. Program
did not violate the US Constitution Establishment Clause because it passed a
five-part test developed by the Court in this case - the Private Choice Test.
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2004
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The failure of the district to provide critical information is a
denial of the parent's right to participate.
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2004
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The district's predetermined methodology violated the IDEA because it
failed to consider the individual educational needs of the student prior to
determining "appropriate" services.
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2005
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Supreme Court held that the burden of proof in a due process hearing
that challenges an IEP is placed upon the party seeking relief. However –
this does NOT require that states who place the burden on the schools to
change that.
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2006
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IDEA does not authorize the payment of the experts' fees of the
prevailing parents.
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2007
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Supreme Court resolved the issue as to whether a nonlawyer parent of
a child with a disability may prosecute IDEA actions pro se in federal court.
Court said that the parents enjoy enforceable rights at the administrative
stage, and it would be inconsistent with the statutory scheme to bar them
from continuing to assert these rights in federal court.
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2009
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IDEA authorizes reimbursement for private special-education services
when a public school fails to provide a FAPE and the private school placement
is appropriate, regardless of whether the child previously received services
through the public school. You do NOT have to try the public school before
you get reimbursed for private school!
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2013
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If a parent was not included in the IEP meeting, then procedural
process under IDEA was violated, and the IEP is invalid.
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2014
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A settlement agreement written between school and parent, if not
honored by school, is a breach of contract that is enforceable by the courts.
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2017
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"We hold that exhaustion is not necessary when the
gravamen of the plaintiff's suit is something other than the denial of the
IDEA's core guarantee - what the Act calls a 'free appropriate public
education.”
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2017
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Supreme Court rejects the “de minimis” standard of FAPE! “A student
offered an educational program providing ‘merely more than de minimis’
progress from year to year can hardly be said to have been offered an
education at all.”
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Cases compiled by Attorney Anne I. Treimanis