Court Case Study Summary

After meeting with our Director of Special Services, I conducted hours of my own research to determine which court cases most directly impact the CSI learning issue at Colonial Road School. He provided me with numerous cases to review. The following is a summary of the cases I selected as most relevant to our learning issue, along with a reflection for each case.

N.S. o/b/o W.W. v. Newark Board Of Education

In this case, the parents paid for a neuropsychological report to be conducting for their child, which determined that the child had ADHD. The district held a Child Study Team meeting and determined that the student did not need to be evaluated for special education services (general education support was provided, and the student did

In Franklin Lakes, I recognize that we evaluate children consistently, even when their parents are not supportive or refuse services. Children must still be evaluated, and every effort must be made to provide them with services that will help them to succeed. As far as CSI specificially, often a child is evaluated, but the parent refuses specific services. We must then offer them the next tier below, usually CSI, until the parent agrees on some form of support for the child. If the parent refuses all forms of special services, then we do our best to differentiate instruction in the general education classroom, and continue to evaluate and communicate with the parent regarding the services our evaluations show would most help the child. The amount of time spend evaluating, monitoring, and communicating with parents, is reflective of not only our desire to help each child in the best way possible, but what our duty is under the

o/b/o B.M. v. Sparta Township Bd. Of. Education

The district court found that the Sparta School District utilized the discrepancy model as the only way of determining if a child had a specific learning disability. The district denied services to the child. The court ruled that, when determining eligibility for special education, a district must consider “all of its assessments of the child….and careful, documented information concerning the child’s health and background.”

This case shows that not only must multiple sources of assessment data be used to determine which children have learning disabilities, but the sources and related data must be properly documented. At Colonial Road School, we take numerous precautions to involve as many data sources as possible when determining which children are eligible for special education. Data is organized, documented, and presented to parents in an appropriate and informative way. It is stressed which assessments must be included and considered when evaluating children for special services.

Doug C. v. Hawaii Department of Education -