SCHOOL LAW STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES CASES AND LEGAL JURISDICTIONS Essay

SCHOOL LAW STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES CASES AND LEGAL JURISDICTIONS - Essay Example related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for employment and independent living;† (2) ensure the rights of such children and their parents are protected; and (3) assist states and localities in providing educational services to meet these legal requirements. Meeting these requirements has imposed signal burdens over the years on states, municipalities, and local school districts. Likewise, providing specific definition to those requirements has fallen to Congress, the U.S. Department of Education, and the Courts. This report describes the IDEA in its most recent configuration, discusses certain salient issues relating to state, municipal, and local responsibility, reviews applicable court cases, and suggests problem areas still in need of resolution. IDEA is the successor to the Education of All Handicapped Children Act (or EAHCA, Public Law 94-142, November 29, 1975). In its ‘statement of findings and purpose,’ the Act established â€Å"that all children [shall] have available to them †¦ a free appropriate public education which emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs†¦ [PL 94-142].† The Act was not sui generis. According to Apling, PL 94-142) was enacted in 1975 in response â€Å"to increased awareness of the need to educate children with disabilities and to judicial decisions requiring that states provide education for children with disabilities if they provided an education for children without disabilities [pp 1-2].† The most commonly cited antecedent cases were PARC v. State of Pennsylvania, 343 F.Supp. 279 (E.D. Pa. 1972) and Mills v. Board of Education of the District of Columbia, 348 F.Supp. 866 (D.D.C. 1972), both decisions having been rendered in Federal district court. However, In Smith v. Robinson [468 U.S. 992, 1984], the Supreme Court described the statute as â€Å"a comprehensive scheme set up by Congress to aid the States in complying with the constitutional