Supreme victory for special-ed students

By The Jewish Star

Issue of June 26, 2009 / 4 Tammuz 5769

The U.S. Supreme Court ruled Monday that school districts are

permitted to reimburse parents of special education students who place

their children in private schools without first enrolling them in

public ones.

“This is a welcome victory for disabled children and their parents,”

said Rabbi Abba Cohen, Washington Office director and counsel for

Agudath Israel of America. “Too often we have found that school

districts are not able to live up to their mandate of providing a

‘free appropriate education’ for children with special needs. This

could be lack of funds or the ability to satisfy the educational,

cultural or other requisites that would allow these children to

excel.”

In those circumstances parents must be given the flexibility to find

a successful program for their child, he said.

“Forcing them to utilize public programs known to be failing or

providing inadequate services and resources — indeed essentially

wasting years of valuable time — is educationally unsound and, in

effect, nothing less than a punishment for these vulnerable children,”

Rabbi Cohen noted. “What the Supreme Court has now affirmed is that

parents have the right to put their children and their special needs

first, and to move ahead responsibly and expeditiously to provide what

they believe will be most likely to bring the children success.”