Author Michael Wehmeyer began his career in special education shortly after the passage of the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act (which later became the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, or IDEA). In those early days, he recounts, students with disability were mostly segregated from other children, and many of the adults…

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act has deep roots in the civil rights movement; however, the legislation, as currently applied, has done little to address racial inequities in services students with disabilities receive. Too often, schools, districts, and states focus on complying with the regulations, while failing to make necessary…

The prevalence rate of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) has grown dramatically, and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires educators to use evidence-based practices to improve academic and/or behavior outcomes for children with ASD. There is definitive scientific evidence regarding the effectiveness of applied behavior…

No Child Left Behind and the Every Student Succeeds Act have made accountability central to conversations about education policy. But neither statute articulates a clear vision of what constitutes "quality" or "equity" in education, nor do they include a mechanism to ensure that schools have sufficient resources to pursue that…

Prior to the mid-1970s, over one million children with disabilities were excluded from the nation's schools. In 1975, as a result of intense litigation and advocacy, Congress passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHA, P.L. 94-142), now called the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), mandating that public schools…

In this era of educational choice, school accountability, research-based practices, and commercial competition--illustrated by but not exclusive to No Child Left Behind--some schools, public and private, make claims that resemble false advertising and that some parents rely on, to their disappointment and even detriment. Moreover, the laudable…

THE FOLLOWING IS THE FULL TEXT OF THIS DOCUMENT: A federal judge in New York has ruled that, under federal copyright law, a group of Buffalo area school districts cannot videotape the televised works of three filmmakers - even for temporary educational purposes. U.S. District Judge John Curtin's decision deals another blow to the Erie County Board…

The courts have more consistently dismembered Title IX than enforced it. (Author/IRT)

Implicit in Gault v. Garrison is the idea that forced retirement is unacceptable at any age. An unintended effect of the current forced retirement laws may be a rethinking of tenure laws in an attempt to make it possible to eliminate some older faculty members from our schools and colleges. (Author/IRT)

Reviews the decisions that have established the five principles of special educational law (zero reject, nondiscriminatory evaluation, appropriate education, least restrictive placement, and procedural due process), demonstrates how they have affected federal legislation, and suggests future litigation the courts will face in these areas.…

The court ruled that refusal to execute Title IX assurance of compliance was grounds for terminating a college's federal student aid without a finding of sex discrimination. A controversial passage concludes that the intent of Title IX is to govern only aspects of an institution's programs that receive federal aid. (MJL)

Summarizes relevant statutes, court cases, and guidelines in an effort to provide interviewers with information to make them confident that they are not violating the rights of those being interviewed. (Author/IRT)

Reviews some important court cases affecting education during the last 25 years and comments on why the courts and regulatory agencies have come to play such a large role in education. (IRT)

Reviews the Supreme Court decision in The Catholic Bishop of Chicago vs National Labor Relations Board that Catholic schools do not have to bargain collectively with teachers. (Author/IRT)