Summary
The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday spent more than an hour debating a question that ultimately could impact millions of U.S. students: What level of support are public schools required to give to pupils with special needs.
The query began with a dispute over the education of a Colorado child with autism.
At issue is a 1975 law that provides states with federal funds for special-needs schooling in exchange for meeting a set of standards. Notably, states have to offer a “free and appropriate education” to disabled students that includes a personalized plan tailored to their situation. (Colorado this year is expected to receive about $175 million in federal funding for special education.)
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Much of Wednesday’s argument revolved around how an appropriate standard could be set, at one point prompting Justice Anthony Kennedy to ask: “What should have been one for this student?”
Replied Jeffrey Fisher, another of Drew’s attorneys: “The first and most important thing that should have been done is what’s known as a behavioral assessment … to figure out why Drew’s behaviors were so dramatically interfering with his education.”
He added: “That was never done.”
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Fisher later said, in summing up the plaintiffs’ arguments, that a “child’s plan should be tailored to allow her to advance from grade to grade.”
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