Legal Issues of Special Education Education always plays a great role in any state. It is an important foundation of good citizenship because it gives children access to cultural value. It prepares them for later professional training and it helps them adjust to the environment normally. Thats why the state pays great attention to it. It spends a lot of money for education. It has adopted some compulsory school attendance laws and acts that guarantee the equal rights to education for all citizens on equal terms. First the state addressed the problem of education in 1952 when the parents of Negro girl appealed to the Court. They sought the aid in admission of their children to the public schools of their community on a non segregated basis.
The case was called Brown v. Board of Education. The parents stated that segregated public schools are not equal and cannot be made equal. So, they have no equal protection of the laws. The question was very important thats why the Court took jurisdiction. Reargument was heard in the Supreme Court in 1953. The opinion of it was delivered by Mr.
Chief Justice Warren. He said, We conclude that in the field of public education the doctrine of “separate but equal” has no place. Separate educational facilities are inherently unequal. The Courts decision was regarded as special education program for children in segregated placements. In 1965, Congress adopted the Elementary and secondary education Act. The Congress affirmed a grant program “for the purpose of assisting the States in the initiation, expansion, and improvement of programs and projects .
. . for the education of handicapped children.” Pub. L. No. 89-750, 161, 80 Stat.
1204 (1966).
But the program was abolished in 1970 by the Education for the Handicapped Act. In 1974, Congress returned to the problem of special education for handicapped children. It demanded states to give full educational opportunities to all handicapped children. The 1974 Statute was regarded as terminal. It gave the Congress an additional year to study the needs of handicapped children. In 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act provided federal funding for education for them.
It was federal afford to improve the education of handicapped. The Act determined a “free public education” as “special education and related services which (A) have been provided at public expense, under public supervision and direction, and without charge, (B) meet the standards of the State educational agency, (C) include an appropriate preschool, elementary, or secondary school education in the State involved, and (D) are provided in conformity with [an] individualized education program.” 20 U.S.C. 1401(18).
All those Acts were in the center of the case Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District, Westchester Country v. Amy Rowley. The case was connected with the education of Amy Rowley a deaf student at the Furnace Woods School in the Hendrick Hudson Central School District, Peekskill, New York. Before attending Furnace Woods School her parents and school administration decided to place her in a regular kindergarten class in order to find out what supplement measures should be taken to her education. At the end it was decided to leave Amy in the kindergarten class but provide her with FM hearing aids.
The girl finished her kindergarten successfully. Under the Act and the Individualized Education Program (IEP) Amy should be studied in a regular classroom at Furnace Woods School using the FM hearing aid. She would receive instruction from a tutor for the deaf for one hour each day and from a speech therapist for three hours each week. The Rowbys agreed with the IEP program but they wanted her daughter to be provided with a qualified sign-language interpreter during all her academic classes. But the school administrators considered that Amy did not need such an interpreter. Then Amys parents appealed to the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Having studied the case the Court came to the conclusion that Amy was receiving a free appropriate public education which was determined by the Court as “an opportunity to achieve [her] full potential commensurate with the opportunity provided to other children.” 483 F. Supp, 534. Michael Panico was in the first grade of the Memorial School in Burlington, Massachusetts when he met difficulties at school. In the third grade Michael continued to show poor achievements. Then school officials told Michaels parents about his difficulties. They advised his parents to place him in a school other then Memorial.
The Town believed the source of Michael difficulties to be emotional and the parents to be neurological. The Town proposed the IEP for Michael but his father refused and treated to the Massachusetts Department of Education’s Bureau of Special Education Appeals (BSEA).
At that time the specialists of Massachusetts General Hospital came to the conclusion that Michael needed “a highly specialized setting for children with learning handicaps. The Court ordered the Town to pay for Michaels tuition and transportation to another school. In 1988, the case California Superintendent of Public Instruction v. Doe was heard.
John Doe was a student of the Louise Lombard School, a center for disabled children. He was an emotionally disturbed child. His behavior was violent and disruptive. In 1980, he hurt another student. It was said that he could not control his impulses and anger. The SFUSD Student Placement Committee (SPC or Committee) decided to expel him.
The District Judge ordered to give Doe tuition at home. The Judge said that the State should take into account any individual case concerning disabled children if the local educational establishment were unable to do it. The case Florence County School District Four v. Shannon Carter was heard in 1993. It was connected with education of Shannon Carter. He was classified as learning disabled in the ninth grade.
School officials proposed IEP for Shannon but her parents did not agree. They placed her in Trident Academy, a private school specializing in educating children with disabilities. At the same time they appealed to the District Court. The Courts decision was in the parents favor. The Court said that the school districts IEP was not adequate and did not satisfy the requirements of the Act. After experting Shannons achievements at Trident the Court decided that she had made significant progress and her education was proper under the Act.
It ordered to pay Shannons parents the expenditures for tuition and other costs.
Bibliography:
Board of Education Henrick Hudson School District v. Amy Rowley. (2006, September).
Retrieved September 1, 2006, from WrightsLaw: Law Library, the United States Suprime Court Web site: http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/ussupct.rowl ey.htm Brown v. Board of Education. (2006, September).
Retrieved September 1, 2006, from WrightsLaw: Law Library, the United States Suprime Court Web site: http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/ussupct.brow n.bd.ed.htm Burlington School Committee v. Massachusetts Department of Education.
(2006, September).
Retrieved September 1, 2006, from WrightsLaw: Law Library, the United States Suprime Court Web site: http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/ussupct.burl ington.htm Education of All Handicapped Children Act Public Law 94-142. (1999).
Retrieved April 5, 2004, from Seattle Community Network: http://www.scn.org/~bk269/94-142.html Federal Statutes Affecting Special Education. (2005).
Retrieved December 12, 2005, from Special Education Advocacy Strategies: http://www.reedmartin.com/specialeducationstatutes .htm 2005 Florence County School District v. Shannon Carter. (2006, September).
Retrieved September 1, 2006, from WrightsLaw: Law Library, the United States Suprime Court Web site: http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/ussupct.cart er.htm Free public education. (2006, April).
Retrieved April 6, 2006, from Wikipedia, free encyclopedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_public_education Honig, California Superintendent of Public Instruction v. Doe. (2006, September).
Retrieved September 1, 2006, from WrightsLaw: Law Library, the United States Suprime Court Web site: http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/ussupct.honi g.doe.htm Special education. (2006, April).
Retrieved April 6, 2006, from Wikipedia, free encyclopedia Web site: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Education.