The U.S. Supreme Court and Special Education

The U.S. Supreme Court and Special Education
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Summary
Since 1982, the Hendrick Hudson School District Education Board v. Rowley (hereafter Rowley) ruling had been applied to determine if a child met the criteria to receive the free appropriate public education (FAPE). However, there remained a problem in establishing what comprised a viable educational benefit for a specific learner. Therefore, Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District (hereafter Endrew) supreme court ruling in 2017 solved the problem by delineating that schools were obligated to empower students to achieve sustainable progress congruent to their circumstances and educational needs. The result is that Endrew offered a rationale for what constituted FAPE (Prince et al., 2018). This ruling implies that individualized education program (IEP) stakeholders should always follow effective practices by addressing diverse students’ needs when performing assessments and creating measurable IEP goals to achieve holistic development of the child.
Facts
Endrew was an autistic student struggling with attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder. This condition undermined Endrew’s communication and reading competencies, cognitive functioning, as well as adaptive and social capabilities. Endrew was a student of Douglas County schools in Colorado from pre-school to grade four. The school has provided the child with special education and associated services per IEP. However, Endrew had made little progress as his behavioral and academic problems persisted, prompting the parents to seek private services. Parents filed a case to seek reimbursement because of FAPE failure in the school district and later in the court of appeals. The Supreme Court later ruled that schools were obligated to provide progress feasible to meet each student’s circumstances, thus overturning the previous ruling (Prince et al., 2018).
Case History
Before Endrew, courts relied on the Rowley landmark ruling of 1982. The ruling had held that Rowley should be accorded FAPE in the context where her IEP is deemed reasonably computed to faci...