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| ESE424 : The Class : Understanding : Roots : Litigation | |||||
Litigation
The final lesson of this topic is about the court cases that have been
instrumental in both establishing a need for special education and shaping
the specific requirements that you, as teachers, must attend to as you
work with students with disabilities. While there are literally thousands
of cases, I have chosen to focus on a select few, ones that have had a
proportionally larger impact on our profession. Since this is the last
in a sequence of fairly detailed lessons, I will attempt to be both brief
and efficient in our discussion.
In all my research, I have found that litigation is the "straw that broke the camels back." By that I mean that all you have learned about before was important in its own right, but when parents began to express their frustration about the lack of services, or the limited range of services, available for their sons and daughters, it became inevitable that public law was needed to redress these inequities. I should note that litigation is typically a last resort and it is arather lengthy and expensive process. In several cases that I had the chance to trace from initial due process complaints, through federal district court, and finally to the Supreme Court (few make it this far), the process took over a decade to complete and cost each litigant between $100,000 (mostly early cases when this was a lot of money)and $1 million. The child had graduated from (or aged out of) the school system well before the case was actually settled. You should also be aware that many disputes are resolved in the early stages and very few progress to more formal, court-related contests. In all my years in school systems, I have only been made aware of 1 complaint that was settled through litigation.
Case law (case decisions) tend to cluster around specific challenges to unmet needs. The cases that we will briefly review concern the right to an education for children with disabilities, discriminatory assessment procedures, appropriate education, least restrictive environment, related services, and suspension and expulsion. Several of the seminal cases are discussed in your text between pages 13-20. Where this occurs, I will restate the significance of the case but omit the details since you have already reviewed these. You may want to refer back to this section as you work on this unit.
The litigation we will discuss in this topic is divided between those cases that occurred prior to passing the EHA and those that were settled after the EHA. Cases prior to the EHA shaped and defined significant portions of this law such as a right to an education and discriminatory assessment procedures. The cases that followed the EHA have focused on refining portions of the law such as appropriate education, least restrictive environment, related services, and suspension and expulsion.
Cases Prior to the EHA
Right to an Education
Early special education cases clustered around the need for educational placements for children with disabilities. Prior to the Education of all Handicapped Children Act (EHA) of 1975, children with disabilities were allowed to attend school when a district chose to provide a program for them. In some instances, the programs were good; in other situations, they were simply custodial. In the early 1970s, parents began to challenge school district's decisions to exclude their children from educational programs. Probably three of the most important cases were the Wyatt case, PARC v the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, and the Mills v the Board of Education cases.
Click below to learn more about these cases.
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Discriminatory Assessment Procedures
The second set of cases sought to address the disproportinate number of students of minority background who were being placed in special education classrooms based on the results of IQ scores. Two cases set the stage for a host of later challenges, which continue today, about culturally biased assessment practices. The cases we will briefly review are the Diana v State Board of Education and the Larry P. v Riles cases. Both are mentioned in your textbook.
Click below to learn more about these cases.
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Cases that Followed the EHA
Appropriate Education
Probably the most commonly cited case relating to appropriate education is the Rowley decision. This case is much more recent that the previous cases. The Rowley case was decided in 1982 by the Supreme Court. In progressing to this level, the judgement of the Court becomes as if law of the land unless overturned later.
Click below to learn more about this case.
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Least Restrictive Environment (LRE)
An often cited case about "least restrictive environment" (LRE) is the Daniel R.R. case from Texas. This case is another challenge that occurred after the EHA was passed and helped further define elements of the law. The case was decided at the Appellate level and was not appealed to the Supreme Court. The decisions of the Appellate court have a significant impact on decisions about what constitutes a child's LRE.
Click below to learn about this case.
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Related Services
Determining whether a specific service is a "related service" has always been a difficult decision for schools. Some services, such as transportation and speech therapy, are easy to identify and define. Others, such as physical therapy to address medical conditions or catheterization, are more problematic. Probably the most frequently sited case about related services is the Tatro case that helped develop some guidelines for determining if a requested service is indeed a related services and required under IDEA.
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Suspension and Expulsion (Discipline Procedures)
The final case involves suspension and expulsion for students with emotional and behavioral disorders (ED). Historically, this has been a hot topic. Some students with ED engage in behaviors that are considered "zero tolerance" behaviors (behaviors that are not acceptable under any circumstances and result in suspension and expulsion). Schools have always been unsure how to deal with these types of behaviors, as well as very disruptive or aggressive responses, when the behavior may be related to the child's disability. The seminal case in this area is the Honig v Doe case of 1988.
Click below to learn about this case.
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Once you have completed all assignments in this topic, you should:
Go on to Topic
3: Types of Special Education Services for Students with Mild Disabilities
or
Go back to The Class
Page
E-mail the instructor at Larry.Gallagher@nau.edu
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