This site will periodically highlight major new legal developments, with a focus on student issues under the IDEA and Sec. 504/ADA. To sign up for email notifications of these updates, please scroll all the way down the page (if viewing on a mobile device) or scroll right (if viewing on a desktop computer). Thanks!
June 2019 Legal Update
This month’s update identifies two new federal appeals court decisions focusing on the substantive dimension of FAPE, with secondary attention to interrelated requirements, such as LRE and transition services.
May 2019 Legal Update
This month’s update concerns issues that were subject to recent relevant court decisions and are of general significance: (a) the emerging fourth dimension of FAPE—capability to implement the IEP, and (b) the overlapping issues of the procedural and substantive dimensions of FAPE with LRE.
April 2019 Legal Update
This month’s update concerns issues that were subject to recent relevant court decisions and are of general significance: (a) racial and ethnic disproportionality in discipline, and (b) eligibility of students with dyslexia under the IDEA classification of specific learning disabilities (SLD).
March 2019 Legal Update
This month’s update concerns issues that were subject to recent officially-published court decisions and are of practical significance: (a) FAPE variations,
including ABA methodology and transition services, and (b) child find and eligibility complications, including the IDEA statute of limitations, in the case of a
gifted child with school attendance and mental health problems.
February 2019 Legal Update
This month’s update concerns two issues that were subject to recent court decisions and are of practical significance: (a) child find and eligibility under Section 504 v. the IDEA; and, as a variation and extension of last month’s legal alert, (b) the district of residence’s obligations to a student with disabilities during the student’s placement at a residential treatment facility, which was via a juvenile court order for mental health.
January 2019 Legal Update
This month’s update concerns two issues that were subject to recent court decisions and are of practical significance: (a) contingent IEPs for students in third-party placements, such as Medicaid-provided residential treatment facilities; and (b) restrictions on parental communications to district personnel based on a previous pattern of excessive or intimidating e-mails, calls, and/or visits.
December 2018 Legal Update
This month’s update concerns two issues subject to recent court decisions and of practical significance: (a) juvenile justice proceedings for students with disabilities, as illustrated by Commonwealth v. Geordi G. (Mass. Ct. App. 2018); and (b) the meaning of “placement” along with the interaction between the IDEA’s adjudicative and investigative dispute resolution mechanisms, as illustrated by Steven R.F. v. Harrison School District No. 2 (D. Colo. 2018).
