Special Education and Juvenile Justice

The practice of special education law is complex. Three statutes impact it, the most relevant of which is the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Often, special education litigation focuses on whether the child is or is not eligible for an Individualized Education Program (IEP), whether the IEP is appropriate, and a Manifestation Hearing to determine if the child’s misconduct was a manifestation of the child's disability.

However, after a finding of guilt in a juvenile court criminal defense proceeding, the focus often revolves around dispositional alternatives, ranging from treatment as an adult and incarceration in the state prison to juvenile probation and less restrictive measures. A teenager whose reading grade level is several years behind the peer group often acts aggressively in school and the community, which can lead to school disciplinary hearings or hearings with the juvenile court judge. Therefore, attorneys, whether in a special education dispute or before the juvenile court in a criminal defense capacity, must learn how to use the special education evaluation test data and reading skills tests to aid their cases. The "delinquent" child whose reading skill level increases significantly is less likely to be a repeat offender.

In this training, attorneys will learn about the relationship between reading problems and juvenile delinquency and what they can do about it on behalf of their clients. Attorneys will also learn how to represent the child with school districts regarding eligibility, IEP, and discipline/expulsion disputes. Finally, attorneys will learn about the evaluation test process to determine eligibility for an IEP and how to chart the child's educational progress or, as happens too often with children before the juvenile court, the child's regression and declining test scores. With the school district’s files and test data, attorneys can prove their cases before the special education hearing officer and the juvenile court judge to secure a less restrictive, educationally relevant, unique dispositional alternative.

This course is highly relevant to the newly licensed attorney and the experienced litigator.

Learning Objectives:

• Explain the critical differences between the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ACT)
• Explain the legal and educational criteria used to determine a child’s eligibility for an IEP
• Explain why a child’s misconduct was or was not a manifestation of the child’s disability in a school discipline case and mandate more intense services
• Evaluate a child’s standard and subtest scores and calculate percentile ranks on different educational achievement tests
• Create and maintain graphs that show a child’s reading scores over time
• Argue for a child’s needs for remedial reading instruction in a special education administrative hearing or juvenile court