Patchwork Promises: Jurisprudence & Special Education

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (I.D.E.A.)

Certain rights guaranteed under the 14th Amendment are specifically extended to children with disabilities in the I.D.E.A., and the regulations implementing that Act. These include Liberty, Equal Protection, and Due Process of Law.

IMPARTIAL DUE PROCESS

“Procedural Safeguards” are regulations developed by the U.S. Department of Education, and at a state level by the Ohio Department of Education, as a mechanism to provide children with disabilities and their parents access to impartial due process.

In Ohio, we currently have a two tier administrative framework for due process cases brought under the I.D.E.A., where the hearing officer at the first level is called the "IHO" (impartial hearing officer). The second level, triggered if any party objects to the decision of the IHO, is a state review of the IHO decision by a "State Review Officer" (SLRO), also appointed by the Ohio Department of Education, Office of Exceptional Children.

Qualifications and background information for the hearing officers appointed by the Ohio Department of Education is available at: http://education.ohio.gov/GD/Templates/Pages/ODE/ODEDetail.aspx?page=3&TopicRelationID=975&ContentID=30212&Content=88644
A complete database of the Decisions issued by the appointed hearing officers in Ohio can also be found at the O.D.E. website.

Ohio Due Process Cases
2000 - 2010

The Patchwork Project has now also formed a Due Process Review Committee, for the purpose of reading and analyzing all of the due process decisions issued by hearing officers in Ohio over the last ten years. In particular, we will be looking at trends and how changes in practices & proceedures at a state level have impacted the right of parents to access impartial due process on behalf of their special needs children.

For further information or to participate on this committee contact "Angie" at 419-621-8419, or "Kathleen" at 419-531-0758.

Brief History of Special Education in the United States

A Brief History of Special Education in the United States By 1900, "all children" in the United States of America were guaranteed the right to a free, public education. This right, however, did not extend to girls, African-American children, or children with disabilities. Girls and black children gradually gained access to public education, but not necessarily in the same schools or with the same curriculum. (1)
In 1954, when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that segregation of black and white children was unconstitutional, children with disabilities were still not permitted by law to attend public school. (2)
When the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was passed, making discrimination based on race illegal, public schools could still legally exclude children with disabilities, particularly developmental disabilities.
Not until 1972, as the result of two federal court decisions abrogating discriminatory state laws, did any disabled child in the United States have a legal right to attend public school. (3)

The guarantee of a public school education in an integrated enviornment was not extended to children with disabilities until 1975, with passage of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act. (4)

References

1. A History of Public Education in the United States, Deeptha Thattai http://http//www.servintfree.net/~aidmn-ejournal/publications/2001-11/PublicEducationInTheUnitedStates.html

2. U.S. Supreme Court decision in Brown v. Board of Education , 1954.

3. U.S. District Court District of Columbia, in Mills v. Board of Education, 1972; Eastern District of Pennsylvania, in PARC v. Pennsylvania 1972.

4. The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (Pub. Law 94-142), 1975; amended and renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 1990.