Key Court Decisions in Special Education Litigation, Slides of Educational Psychology

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SPECIAL EDUCATIONLITIGATION

KEY COURT DECISIONS

FoundationalLitigation

Court decision^ ^ In these days, it is doubtful that any childmay reasonably be expected to succeed inlife if he is denied the opportunity of aneducation.

Such an opportunity, where the state has undertaken to provide it, is a rightwhich must be made available to all on equalterms.”  End of “separate but equal”

Hobson v. Hansen (1967)^ ^ Black students placed indisproportionate # in lower tracks inWashington D. C. public schools^ ^ Determined to be discrimination againstthe socially and/or economicallydisadvantaged^ ^ Court required school to discontinue thepractice and provide^ ^ compensatory education

Diana v. State Board ofEducation (1970)^ ^ Use of standardized tests toclassify minority students^ ^ Nine Mexican American studentsassigned to Sp. Ed. in California

Diana v. State Board of Education(cont.)^ ^ Students put in special educationbased on IQ tests^ ^ given in English^ ^ standardized on a white, native-bornAmerican population^ ^ items that were later determined toculturally biased

Mills vs Board of Education(1971)^ ^ 7 students with varying disabilities (mentalretardation and physical disabilities)^ ^ Refused admission to Washington D.C. publicschools or expelled based on disability^ ^ District admitted that 12, 340 children wouldnot be served in schools because ofdisabilities during the 71-72 school year

^ Decision:

“District Court ruled that school districts were constitutionally prohibited fromdeciding that they had inadequate resourcesto serve children with disabilities because theequal protection clause of the FourteenthAmendment would not allow the burden ofinsufficient funding to fall more heavily onchildren with disabilities than on otherchildren”

(Martin, Martin & Terman, 1996)

Larry P. v. Riles (1972, 1974,1979, 1984)^ ^ Similar to

Diana but involved an

African American Student  Problem verified by court decisionwas that the test had not beenvalidated on an appropriatepopulation^ ^ RESULT: disproportionate # ofminority students placed in specialeducation

^ Court said couldn’t place studentsuntil retested with unbiasedassessments ^ California directed to retest allstudents in special education

^ Critical Decision:APPROPRIATE DOES NOTMEAN OPTIMAL

The Independent School Districtv. Tatro (1984)^ ^ Amber Tatro – spina bifida^ ^ District did not want to providerelated service of cleanintermittent catheterization^ ^ Not considered medical procedurein this situation