The IDEA’s Mental Health Answer?
Claire Raj, University of South Carolina School of Law
In the wake of the most recent tragic mass school shooting, the gun
control-mental health debate rages. An
overlooked pieced of this debate is role of the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act in it. This article
examines the IDEA’s potential for addressing mental health in schools, including
how it is both an over-utilized and over-underutilized to help students
suffering from mental health problems.
Special Education by Zip
code: A Comparison of Child Find in Neighboring Districts
Crystal Grant, The University of Michigan Law School
Special
education refers to the services and supports provided to children with
disabilities in school. These services
and supports are individualized to enable students to have access to the
general education curriculum, make progress in light of their circumstances and
have equal access to the educational benefits enjoyed by their non-disabled
peers. Special education rights and
responsibilities are outlined in the Individuals with Disabilities Education
Act (IDEA) a federal civil rights law.
The
purpose of this article is to explore the discrepancies in child find among
neighboring school districts. Child find
is a school district’s affirmative duty to locate, identify and evaluate all
students suspected of having a disability.
The Problem
While
the IDEA is a federal law and child find a federal mandate, there are
inconsistencies in its application. Many
parents find themselves trying to move to school districts with more favorable
child find policies and in turn, better access to special education.
Methods
This
article will cover the legal requirements for child find under the IDEA and
Section 504 as well as the supporting case law. I will use empirical data to compare child find trends in multiple
school districts and examine possible causes resulting in poor child find
policies.