Special Education Law

A Word to Our Readers As we were preparing this text, it became clear to us that you, our readers, might appreciate the reasoning for our choice of organization, specific cases, and so forth. This information would provide a background as to why we focused on certain aspects of the law or cited cases that you may not consider relevant. From a historical perspective the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) was a response, in part, to issues raised by advocacy groups and court decisions. IDEA is, in fact, rooted in the social and philosophic fabric of the nation's ideals of equality. These ideals have led the nation to review possible injustices and loss of personal rights through litigation at the state and national level. The results of this litigation are catalogued and known as "case law." This information provides a historical, and often relevant, body of knowledge that is cited as "precedent" or "stare decisis" when issues are addressed through litigation or legislation at a later date. The study of law is, in part, the study of history. Therefore, as we prepared this text we cited and discussed cases that were brought before the courts at all levels to illustrate the points being examined in each chapter. Lower court decisions have a limited effect and only officially influence the state, district, or the specific federal circuit in which they are heard (see Appendix A). But as judge Crabtree says: "What is law? I prefer to think of it as based on prior cases as applied to the facts. The law is what a court states it is at a given time." Until a case is heard at the highest tier (the Supreme Court), the decision at the lower levels (district or circuit) provides the legal mandate for that issue in that specific area of the nation. Such decisions are used by attorneys, advocates, and legislators as a convenient compilation of information concerning a particular issue. It is important to note here that any opinions that are unpublished may be used for educational purposes only. They have no influence or effect on future court decisions, and they cannot be used as supporting citations. When we discuss issues in the text, we also use other forms of supporting information to assist in clarifying our viewpoint on the topic (see Appendix B). For instance, the United States Code is cited with accompanying federal regulations whenever we discuss the specific section of IDEA that has resulted in controversy. Along with the legislation and litigation, where available, we have used Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), Office of Special Education and Rehabilitation Services (OSERS), and letters and memos to the various State Education Agencies (SEA) to provide you with the interpretation of IDEA and its regulations concerning an issue as it has been communicated to the states. Although these letters and memos are not considered law, they are given deference by the various courts when preparing an opinion. Of course, the selection of cases was a personal decision by the authors. We selected pertinent cases that we thought you, as readers, would find interesting as well as informative. Cases were also chosen that have been recognized as historical underpinnings for IDEA. In the chapter on future issues, we selected cases that we saw as harbingers of issues that might become more controversial. Although our philosophical preferences are exhibited throughout the text, we guarded against reinterpretation of the legal opinions. The briefings at the end of the chapters were provided to acquaint our readers with the methods used to examine disputed points of law. We urge you to review additional cases using that methodology, thereby obtaining first-hand knowledge of the reasoning of the court. As you are reading this text, we hope you will remember that IDEA is the result of a reaffirmation of the beliefs of our society thatallcitizens should be provided an eduMurdick, Nikki L. is the author of 'Special Education Law' with ISBN 9780136474135 and ISBN 0136474136.