The case the U.S. Supreme Court recently heard about a disabled Michigan child who was forbidden to bring her service dog to school turns on the details of complex federal laws. But the bigger question it raises is: When should the courts be open to parents who say the schools have mistreated their children?
The case the U.S. Supreme Court recently heard about a disabled Michigan child who was forbidden to bring her service dog to school turns on the details of complex federal laws. But the bigger question it raises is: When should the courts be open to parents who say the schools have mistreated their children?
Ehlena Fry was born with spastic quadriplegic cerebral palsy. Her pediatrician prescribed a service dog to help her move around. But her elementary school, after a trial period, decided she could not have the dog with her during school; even during the trial period, officials wouldn’t let her make full use of the dog. One result, her family’s lawyer told the court: “She was forced to go to the toilet with the stall door open and four adults watching her because defendants did not trust her to use her dog to transfer to the toilet bowl.”
Ehlena’s parents pulled her from the school and sued, citing the Americans with Disabilities Act. But they didn’t go through the full administrative process in front of local and state educational officials that’s required to challenge a student’s individualized education plan under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.
The IDEA process has value in some cases, where educational expertise is important and the family is still trying to have a constructive relationship with the school district. It provides a forum in which experts can figure out how best to educate that student in that district. But it’s not appropriate when the school district’s behavior has been so bad that the family has cut ties with the district and is seeking only compensation for its mistreatment of the student. For such cases, the federal courts should be open, and you shouldn’t have to go through the IDEA process first.
If the Supreme Court concludes that existing laws require families to go through the IDEA process, even when they’ve left the district and want only damages, Congress should change the laws. If you’ve left a school district because you think it mistreated your child, you should be able to sue the district for the suffering it inflicted.
— Pittsburgh Post-Gazette