Supreme Court Case Rules on Special Education
Morning Edition June 23, 2009
http://www.npr.org/player/v2/mediaPlayer.html?action=1&t=1&islist=false&id=105797012&m=105796997
Larry Avis reported that a high school student (TA) began having attention problems. The student was evaluated to determine eligibility. It was found that he did not qualify for special education services. One comment was made that if accommodations were made then it was unlikely that the student would have been in a residential facility. Parent decided when TA was a junior; it was best to pull the student out of the public school. They placed him in a private setting (boarding school). The school system stated parents acted on there on that they did not feel that they should have to pay for their decision to place the child in a private setting. TA’s parents decided to sue and have the public school to pay for the tuition of their child in private setting. They took the case to Supreme Court. The parent won the right to sue for payment of the student’s education in Portland, Oregon for the cost of sending the student to a private school. They must go back to court to determine reimbursement. There are concerns that schools need to keep working with parents to come up with the needs of students even if the student does not qualify. There is concern that cases like these may influence parents to want to pull their child out of the public school setting and seek the private setting at the expense of the school district.
Should the parents have sued for educational services outside of the school system? My concerns with this lawsuit are the criteria by which the school system of Oregon based their decision to determine eligibility. I feel that if there were no accommodations and modifications made based on the special education services then there should have been some, based on 504. I feel that the school system should have addressed the areas of concern and come up with strategies that the parents were comfortable with and documented those things. I can’t determine based on the report whether or not anecdotal records were gathered but there are a series of assessments a student would encounter to make the decision to not be eligible. However the parent’s have a right to go due process if they are in disagreement with the decision and it sounds as if that may have occurred. However, lots of time has gone by, TA continues to have issues with attention problems. I’m not sure he did not have any other problems that may have caused him to enter in a boarding school. There are still some missing elements to the story. To answer my question of a law suit, I feel that the parents should sue if not all of the interventions were tried for their child and to make sure that the child received the most optimal education within the public setting only if all else has failed.
Additional Reference:
1. High court: Who pays for special education?
By MATTHEW DALY Associated Press Writer
2. US high court to hear Oregon special ed case by Mary Hudetzwww.katu.com/news/local/37751839.htm
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