Law and People with Disabilities


Week of 9-26-11

26 September

Again, when the court granted cert here, everyone got all scared, but it was a false alarm.

Burlington and Florence County stood for the proposition that parents could get reimbursed for private education if the district was failing to provide FAPE. In other words, if the IEP is not reasonably calculated to provide FAPE, or if there just isn't FAPE, the only equitable remedy is to reimburse for the cost of the private education.

Here, the court is just saying that the right to FAPE doesn't presume that the student has to endure ineffective FAPE before being placed in private school at public expense.

Although, in practice, that's often how it is: in order to persuade a due process hearing officer, you need solid evidence, and maybe therefore you do have to watch some floundering before your case is a clear-cut winner.