It’s natural for parents to feel upset when their child doesn’t seem to be making the progress they expected. Every parent wants their child to reach their full potential. However, this can be especially difficult for the parents of disabled children, who have to navigate the often frustrating world of special education. Even after going to Committee on Special Education (“CSE”) meetings and sticking to the Individualized Education Program (“IEP”), parents might still find that their child is not making progress. A question naturally arises to these parents: “what if my child isn’t progressing under their IEP?”
The court has tried to answer this question on several occasions. In 1982, the supreme court examined the case of Amy Rowley, a hearing-impaired kindergarten student. Amy was making good progress in class, but her parents knew that she was not reaching her full potential. Although the school had provided Amy with a hearing aid, the Rowleys knew that without the help of a sign-language interpreter she would not be able to do her best. The parents requested this from the school, but the school denied their request.
Wanting to do everything in their power to help their child, the parents took their case to court, where it eventually landed on the desks of the supreme court justices. The supreme court agreed with the family that Amy had not been provided a free and appropriate education, and said that disabled children were entitled to services that would do more than simply carry them through school.
This was the opinion of the court until 2017, when the case of another child was examined. This child was Endrew, a fifth-grade boy who had been diagnosed with autism at age two. Endrew’s family did everything they could, year after year, to ensure that he received the best education possible. However, the school district did not seem to be giving their child the same level of care. Every year Endrew’s IEP looked basically the same, with the same goals and objectives, even though he was not making any progress. Once he reached the fifth grade, they had finally had enough. They took him out of the public school and placed him in a private school for children with autism.
Endrew thrived at his new school, showing how well he could do when given the right help. This change proved to his parents how faulty his past IEPs had been. Under the law, a parent who places their child in a private school is eligible for tuition reimbursement if it is found that the district failed to provide their child with a free and appropriate education. However, Endrew’s parents were turned away when they tried to get the reimbursement they deserved. A judge decided that the school had given Endrew the services he was entitled to, and the parents were left to pay for tuition out of their own pocket.
Thankfully, the case reached the supreme court, which decided in favor of Endrew and his family. The justices wrote in their opinion that an IEP must be “appropriately ambitious” and designed with the unique needs of the child in mind. This means that school districts must do more than the bare minimum to help disabled students.
If you find your child is not making progress, there are legal options available to you. Every child deserves to reach their full potential.