Court cases

There are many court cases that helped define our current educational landscape. The following is a listing of some of the cases that have resulted in key Supreme Court decisions.

Case	Year	Effect	Notes
Brown vs. Board of Education	1954	Integration of students
PARC vs. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania	1972	FAPE Free appropriate public education
Stuart vs. Nappi	1978	Student could stay in school despite bad behavior
Armstrong vs. Kline	1979	Extended school year
Hendrick Hudson School vs. Rowley	1982	Students have a right to an individual, personal plan - contested IDEA and lost
Abrahamson vs. Hershman	1983	If residential placement is required, school district must provide it
Dept of Ed. vs. Katherine D	1984	Home bound is not LRE [Least Restrictive Environment]
Irving Indep. School District vs. Tatro	1984	Physical and health impairments may not prevent being served in public school
Smith vs. Robinson	1984	School must pay for necessary residential placements
Cleburne vs. Cleburne Living Center	1985	Cannot zone group homes out of neighborhoods
Burlington School Committee vs. DOE	1985	District may have to pay for private placement, even when the parents go against district advice if the placement meets the student's need and the IEP in the district did not
Timothy W. vs. Rochester School	1988	Zero rejection
Honig vs. Doe	1988	Children with disabilities may not be excluded from school for misbehavior
Danny R. R. vs. State Board of Ed.	1989	Least Restrictive Environment - FAPE means student has right, to inclusion to the maximum extent possible
Zobrest vs Catalina School District	1993	District may pay for student services if needed even when the student attends a parochial school without violating separation of church and state
Florence County School District vs. Carter	1993	If schools do not provide appropriate services and a private school does, the district may have to pay, even if they did not approve the placement and parents acted unilaterally
Board of Education in Sacramento, CA vs. Holland	1994	Least Restrictive Environment - Four factors, including the needs of all children in the school, that must be considered for FAPE
Cases regarding Assessment	Date	Effect	Notes
Hobson vs. Hansen	1967-8	Track system based on IQ testing is unconstitutional - discriminates against poor children and Arfo-American students
Diana vs State Board of Ed.	1970	Non biased Assessments in child's native language
Tinker vs. Des Moines	1970	Constitutional rights of children
Covarrubias vs. SanDiego USD	1971	Monetary damages paid due to misclassifying Mexican Americans as disabled
Mills vs. Board of Education	1972	Must provide services regardless of district's ability to pay
Larry P vs. Riles	1979	IQ test may not be sole assessment - over placement of minority students in SPED
Mattie T. vs. Holladay (Mississippi)	1979	State must revamp assessment to be fair to minority students and assess in timely fashion
Luke S. & Han S. vs. Nix, et.al.	1981	Assessments must be timely

1. Tests are to be selected and administered so as to be racially and culturally nondiscriminatory

2. To the extent feasible, students are to be assessed in their native language language or primary mode of communication (such as American Sign Language and communication board.)

3. Tests must have been validated for the specific purpose for which they are used.

4. Tests must be administered by trained personnel in conformance with the instructions provided by the test producers.

5. Tests used with students must include those designed to provide information about specific educational needs, and not just a general intelligence quotient.

6. Decisions about students are to be based on more than their performance on a single test.

7. Evaluations are to be made by a multidisciplinary team that includes at lease one teacher or other specialist with knowledge in the are of suspected disability.

8. Children must be assessed in all areas related to a specific disability, including - where appropriate -- health, vision, hearing, social and emotional status, general intelligence, academic performance, communicative skills and motor skills.

What's been happening since these cases? Do you know how to locate new case law? Do you know if there are any challenges to IDEA 97? Why not do some surfing to see what is out there?

Links

Personal Notes

Arizona Legislative news

Legal issues in special education

Summary of court cases by major principles of IDEA

Children's Rights Council

Findlaw site

Rights of the child - UN

Children's rights advocates - ARC

Votesmart site

Important Court Cases in Special Education