This article addresses legal issues arising from a district's decision not to renew the employment contract of a 61-year-old school psychologist after 9 years of service. The case focuses on the issues of age discrimination and whistleblowing, although it raises other questions of current relevance to school psychologists, such as the…

Specific learning disability (SLD), although moderately declining in recent years, continues to be the largest of the eligibility classifications under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA; NCES, 2012). The recognition of response to intervention (RTI) in the 2004 amendments of the IDEA as an approach for identifying students with…

Response to intervention (RTI) is a major current issue at the intersection of general and special education, with the school psychologists in their usual central position. The literature is replete with scholarly and practical sources on RTI, but the legal sources are limited. A few articles provide systematic coverage of the relevant provisions…

Given their pivotal position, school psychologists have understandable concerns about the possibility of becoming the target of the relatively frequent legal proceedings under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Indeed, the threat of litigation can contribute to a flight from the profession (Lange, 2011). Yet, an informal…

This article reports on a case that resulted in a published court decision which illustrates a dilemma at the intersection of the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). On first impression, the finding that teachers were operating based on professional principle seems to validate their actions.…

Response to intervention (RTI) remains a major issue in both the professional literature and school practice. A series of previous "snapshot" studies traced the development of RTI in state laws concerning identification of students with specific learning disability (SLD). In the last article in this series, Zirkel and Thomas (2010) reported that…

The school psychologist plays a central role in eligibility and other determinations under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) not only at the school level but also, upon formal disputes, at the successive adjudicative levels of impartial hearing officers and courts. One of the sources of professional confusion that requires…

Children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) may experience educational difficulties that warrant an evaluation to determine whether they are eligible to receive services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). As with any disorder, legal disputes about eligibility sometimes arise between parents and school…

A previous exploratory analysis revealed that students with autism were notably overrepresented in published court decisions concerning the IDEA's core concepts of "free appropriate public education" (FAPE) and "least restrictive environment" (LRE). More specifically, for the period 1993 to 2006, the proportion of this litigation attributable to…