National Center for Learning Disabilities Provides State by State Special Education Scorecards

     The National Center for Learning Disabilities has provided scorecards for every state that includes information on state special education enrollment (including the number of students with specific learning disabilities), student performance on key indicators, federal funding provided to support special education in each state, and the state’s rating by the U.S. Department of Education on its [...]

Parent Centers: A resource for training and assistance for families of children with disabilities

 
          It’s back-to-school time and this posting provides information on federally funded Parent Centers that provide training and assistance to families of children with disabilities. My thanks to my long time friend Barbara Buswell, the Director of Colorado’s PEAK Parent Center, for providing this information regarding services provided by Parent Centers in general and the PEAK [...]

Education Secretary Duncan Sends Letter to Chief State School Officers Regarding Seclusion & Restraint in Schools

     Last Friday, July 31st, Secretary of Education Arne Duncan sent a letter to the Chief State School Officers in each state encouraging them to review their state’s “current policies and guidelines regarding the use of retraints and seclusion in schools to ensure every student is safe and protected, and if appropriate, develop or revise [...]

Looking at the Trees in the Forest Grove Decision

     Last week the Supreme Court ruled in Forest Grove v T.A., that the IDEA authorizes reimbursement of private school tuition to parents when: (1) the public school fails to provide appropriate special education services to the child; and (2) the private school program placement is appropriate. Importantly, this is true regardless  of whether the [...]

Supreme Court Rules the IDEA Authorizes Private-School Tuition Reimbursement

     Today, by a 6 to 3 vote, the Supreme Court ruled in Forest Grove School District v T.A. that the IDEA authorizes tuition reimbursement for private school special education services if the school district does not offer an appropriate public program, even though the student hadn’t previously received special education services through the public school.
     School [...]

Supreme Court Nominee Judge Sonia Sotomayor and Disability Law

 
           The Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law has provided a valuable service by producing a Preliminary Review of Disability Cases of Judge Sonia Sotomayor. That review provides a fairly in depth analysis of Judge Sotomayor’s decisions in disability cases. The review identifies twenty eight cases involving disability law and, if you’re just keeping score, [...]

Toileting Assistance in Child Care and the ADA

     After my  post yesterday on Child Care and the ADA I received a very good question regarding child care programs providing assistance with toileting for children with disabilities who use “pull ups”. The question also raised issues regarding serving older children with disabilities who needed toileting assistance or diapering with much younger children. I [...]

The ADA and Child Care

           In my last post I discussed Title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act in the context of Justice Department Sues Private School Chain for Discriminating Against Children with Disabilities. This provides additional information regarding the ADA and child care.
          Title III of the ADA covers privately-run child care centers, just as it covers other [...]

Justice Department Sues Private School Chain for Discriminating Against Children with Disabilities

     Last Wednesday April 29th the U.S. Justice Department announced that it had filed suit in U.S. District Court in Philadelphia against Noble Learning Communities Inc. (Nobel). The Justice Department alleges that Nobel violated title III of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) by excluding children with autism spectrum disorder and other disabilities from its [...]

Supreme Court to Hear Tuition Reimbursement Case: Forest Grove v. T.A.

     On April 28, 2009, the Supreme Court will hear oral argument in Forest Grove v. T.A. The issue is whether the school district can be required under the IDEA to reimburse parents for private school tuition when the school had not previously recognized the student’s need for special education. 
     The case involves a family [...]