At these meetings, the district has several advantages, starting with Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley (1982), the first IDEA case to reach the Supreme Court. Amy Rowley was a hearing-impaired girl whose parents wanted her to have a qualified sign-language interpreter in all of her academic classes. The Court said that the district was already supplying her with sufficient supports, and that the law did not require this additional step. Even though the legislation’s sponsors said that its goal was educational equality, the majority found that there was no substantive language in the statute itself regarding the level of education that children with disabilities must get:
While Congress sought to provide assistance to the States in carrying out their constitutional responsibilities to provide equal protection of the laws, it did not intend to achieve strict equality of opportunity or services for handicapped and nonhandicapped children, but rather sought primarily to identify and evaluate handicapped children, and to provide them with access to a free public education. The Act does not require a State to maximize the potential of each handicapped child commensurate with the opportunity provided nonhandicapped children.[i]
[i] Board of Education v. Rowley, 458 US 176, at 177. Online: http://supreme.justia.com/us/458/176/case.html.
As the U.S. Supreme Court prepares to consider how much educational benefit schools must provide students with disabilities, everyone from lawmakers to states and advocates are weighing in.
A dozen amicus briefs have been filed in the case known as Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District since the high court said this fall that it would take up the matter.
The case marks the first time in more than three decades that the Supreme Court will hear arguments about the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s mandate that public schools provide children with disabilities a free appropriate public education, or FAPE.Here are links to the briefs:
- National Association of State Directors of Special Education
- United States
- 118 Members of Congress
- Advocates for Children of New York, et al.
- NBrief amici curiae of Former Officials of the U.S. Department of Education
- National Disability Rights Network
- National Education Association
- Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates
- Coalition of Texans with Disabilities
- Delaware, et al.
- National Center for Special Education in Charter Schools
- National Disability Rights Network
