NDRN - Press Room

Press Contact:
Curt Decker Executive Director, NDRN
(202) 408-9514
curt.decker@ndrn.org

Washington (June 22, 2009) - In Forest Grove v. T.A., the Supreme Court ruled in favor of the parents of a child with a disability. The Court held that even though their son had never received special education services from the school district they were entitled to pursue tuition reimbursement for the private educational program they secured for their son, T.A.

T.A.’s school district had decided that he was not eligible for special education services and refused to provide him with a free appropriate public education. His parents then placed him in a private school at their own expense and sought reimbursement. The school district attempted to avoid paying the parents on the grounds that a 1997 amendment to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) only allows parents to be reimbursed if the child had already been receiving special education services from the district before making the unilateral placement. In ruling for the parents, the Court stated that an overly narrow interpretation of the IDEA would not be consistent with the “general remedial purpose” of the IDEA to ensure that students with disabilities receive the services necessary to meet their needs.

The Court held that the 1997 amendments to the IDEA should not be read to limit earlier Supreme Court cases that allowed reimbursement when a school district did not provide an appropriate education for a student. The Court stated that “it would be particularly strange for the Act to provide a remedy, as all agree it does, when a school district offers a child inadequate special-education services but to leave parents without relief in the more egregious situation in which the school district denies a child access to such services altogether.”

Finally, the Court noted that this decision should not impose a substantial burden on school districts. In fact, the Supreme Court quoted from NDRN’s amicus brief for the proposition that the incidence of such placements at public expense is actually quite small. The Court also noted that reimbursement will only occur if the school district does not offer the student an appropriate program and the program selected by the parents is found to be appropriate. Even after the parents have met those hurdles, they could still have their reimbursement reduced or eliminated if it is found that they acted unreasonably

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The National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) is the nonprofit membership organization for the federally mandated Protection and Advocacy (P&A) Systems and the Client Assistance Programs (CAP) for individuals with disabilities. Collectively, the Network is the largest provider of legally based advocacy services to people with disabilities in the United States.