Legal Guidelines and Knowledge of Learners · 12 min read
Federal and Texas Legal Foundations
The Six Principles of IDEA
The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the primary federal law governing special education. It guarantees a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to every eligible child with a disability. Six principles organize the law, and most legal questions on the exam trace back to one of them.
The district locates, evaluates, and serves all students, including those with the most significant or medically complex needs.
Every eligible child is served, whatever the nature or severity of the disability. A school may not exclude a student or claim it is unable to serve one.
Assessment in all areas of suspected disability with
Testing occurs in the student’s native language or mode of communication; no single score decides eligibility.
valid, reliable, unbiased instruments given by trained personnel, using multiple measures and sources.
Special education and related services at no cost to parents, meeting state standards, and provided in
Goals, services, and supports are individualized so the student makes meaningful progress.
Least restrictive Education with peers without disabilities to the environment (LRE)
The ARD committee considers general education with supplementary aids and services first.
maximum extent appropriate. Removal must be justified, and a continuum of placements must be available.
Procedural safeguards Protections for parent and student rights: notice,
Parents receive the Notice of Procedural Safeguards and prior written notice.
consent, access to records, independent evaluation, mediation, complaints, and due process hearings.
Meaningful parent involvement in evaluation, eligibility, IEP development, and placement. Parents are equal
Meetings are set at a mutually agreed time, with an interpreter when needed.
Items often describe a school action and ask which principle it violates. Refusing to enroll a student with complex medical needs violates zero reject. Assigning a student to a separate class because “that is where students with autism go” violates LRE. Changing services without telling the parent violates procedural safeguards and parent
IDEA Part B and Part C
IDEA is divided into parts. Part B covers special education for children and youth ages 3 through 21 and is carried out by school districts under the Texas Education Agency (TEA). Part C covers early intervention for infants and toddlers from birth to age three and is carried out in Texas by Early Childhood Intervention (ECI) under Texas Health and Human
School-based. Guarantees FAPE through an IEP developed by the ARD committee and delivered in the least restrictive environment. In Texas, children who are deaf or hard of hearing or who have visual impairments may be served from birth.
Part C (birth to 3)
Family-centered. Services are delivered through an individualized family service plan (IFSP) in natural environments such as the home or child care, with a service coordinator. Chapter 3 compares the IFSP and the IEP.
ESSA, Section 504, the ADA, and FERPA
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) is the nation’s general education law. It holds schools accountable for the achievement of all students, including students with disabilities, whose results are reported as a separate student group. They take the same state assessments as their peers, with accommodations when needed, unless the ARD committee determines that an alternate assessment is appropriate.
ESSA AND STUDENTS WITH DISABILITIES
Challenging state academic standards apply to all students; in Texas these are the TEKS. Alternate assessments aligned with alternate academic achievement standards are reserved for students with the most
significant cognitive disabilities (in Texas, STAAR Alternate 2).
Participation in the alternate assessment is capped at 1% of all students tested in a subject statewide. The cap limits the
state total; it does not decide an individual student’s assessment.
School improvement activities and interventions must be evidence-based.
Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are civil rights laws that prohibit discrimination on the basis of disability. Both use a broad definition: a physical or mental impairment that substantially limits one or more major life activities, a record of such an impairment, or being regarded as having one. Section 504 reaches programs that receive federal funds; the ADA applies whether or not federal money is involved.
Purpose Education law: provides FAPE
Civil rights law: prevents discrimination in public services, employment, and public accommodations education and related services federal funds
Any person with an impairment that
Who is Ages 3–21 (birth to 3 under Part C)
Same broad definition as Section 504, across the life span substantially limits a major life protected who meet an eligibility category and need specially designed instruction activity
What is IEP, related services, and procedural
Reasonable modifications, effective communication, and physical and program access and services, usually in a Section 504 plan; no federal funding provided safeguards, with federal funding
U.S. Department of Education Office
Enforcement TEA complaints, mediation, and due
U.S. Department of Justice; OCR for schools process hearings; federal Office of
THE ADA AMENDMENTS ACT (ADAAA)
The ADAAA broadened the definition of disability, and the same definition applies under Section 504. Major life activities expressly include reading, concentrating, thinking, communicating, and major bodily functions. Whether an impairment is substantially limiting is decided without regard to mitigating measures such as medication, hearing aids, or assistive technology (ordinary eyeglasses excepted). A condition that is episodic or in remission counts if it would be limiting when active.
The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) protects education records. Parents may inspect and review records, ask that inaccurate records be amended, and must give written consent before personally identifiable information is released outside the school. School officials with a legitimate educational interest may see records without consent. FERPA rights transfer to the student at age 18.
How Texas Implements Federal Law
States may add to federal requirements but may not provide less. Texas carries out IDEA through statute, rule, and agency guidance, and several Texas timelines and ages are stricter than the federal minimum. On this exam, apply the
State statute. Establishes the statewide special education program, the ARD committee, transition
State rules that supply the details: eligibility criteria, evaluation timelines, IEP content, ARD
Monitors districts, investigates complaints, and operates the mediation and hearing systems. Regional education service centers provide technical assistance.
TEXAS TERMS TO USE ON THE EXAM
FIIE (full individual and initial evaluation) = the initial evaluation; its written report is often called the FIE. Emotional disability = IDEA’s emotional disturbance. Deaf or hard of hearing combines IDEA’s deafness and hearing
Emergent bilingual student = English learner. Paraprofessional = instructional aide.
Transition planning begins by age 14 (federal law: by 16).
Court decisions created many of the rights later written into IDEA, and they continue to define terms such as appropriate and least restrictive. Texas lies in the federal Fifth Circuit, so the Daniel R.R. test is the LRE standard for Texas schools.
Brown v. Board of Separate public education is inherently unequal. Education
Foundation for later claims that excluding students with disabilities denies equal opportunity.
PARC v. Pennsylvania Children with intellectual disabilities have a right to a free public education.
No child may be labeled uneducable; parents take part in placement decisions.
Cost alone cannot justify denying services.
Extended that right to children with all disabilities; lack of funds is
FAPE means access and an IEP reasonably calculated to provide
Schools must offer real benefit but need not maximize potential.
v. Rowley educational benefit, not the best possible program.
An IEP must be reasonably calculated to enable progress
Goals must be ambitious and data-based; repeating the same goals each year is a warning sign.
appropriate in light of the child’s circumstances, well beyond
Two-part LRE test: Can education in the general classroom be
The ARD committee documents supports tried before any removal and maximizes time with peers.
achieved satisfactorily with supplementary aids and services? If not, is the student included to the maximum extent appropriate?
Schools must consider the full range of supplementary aids and
Inclusion is a right, not a privilege to be earned.
Education services before removal from general education.
Clean intermittent catheterization is a related service; a nurse or
School health services a student needs in order to attend must be provided.
trained layperson can provide it.
Continuous nursing care is a related service when a physician is
Cost or intensity does not turn a health service into an excluded medical service.
Garret F. not required to deliver it.
Schools may not unilaterally exclude a student for disability-related behavior beyond 10 school days; the student “stays put” during
Basis of current discipline protections.
A child need not show an ability to benefit in order to be served.
Zero reject applies to students with the most profound disabilities.
Racially biased IQ tests could not be used to place African
Evaluations must be nondiscriminatory; watch for disproportionate identification.
American students in special classes.
Diana v. State Students must be tested in their primary language. Board of Education
Evaluate emergent bilingual students in the native language.
Parents have their own enforceable rights under IDEA.
Parents are full partners, not only representatives of the child.
Parents may be reimbursed for private tuition when the district
Failing to offer an appropriate IEP has real consequences for a district.
failed to offer FAPE and the private placement is appropriate.
Expect to distinguish the two FAPE cases. Rowley set the floor (access and some educational benefit); Endrew F. raised it (progress appropriate in light of the child’s circumstances, with challenging objectives). For an IEP with unchanged goals and flat data, the best answer applies Endrew F. and has the ARD committee revise the program.
Procedural safeguards keep parents informed and give them ways to disagree. Districts give parents the Notice of Procedural Safeguards at least once a year and at key moments: the initial referral or request for evaluation, the first complaint or hearing request in a school year, a disciplinary change of placement, and on request.
Written explanation before the district proposes or refuses to change identification, evaluation, placement, or FAPE: what, why, and the data used. In Texas, at least 5 school days beforehand.
Written, voluntary agreement before the initial evaluation, the initial provision of services, and a reevaluation. Consent to evaluate is not consent for services, and consent may be revoked.
Parents may inspect and review all education records about their child and ask for corrections.
A parent who disagrees with the district’s evaluation may request one at public expense. The district pays or requests a hearing to defend its own; the ARD committee considers the results.
Voluntary, confidential, and free. An impartial mediator provided through TEA helps the parties reach a
A written complaint to TEA alleging a violation within the past year. TEA investigates and issues a written decision within 60 calendar days.
A formal hearing before an impartial hearing officer, preceded by a resolution meeting. Either party may file, within two years in Texas.
During a hearing or appeal, the student remains in the current educational placement unless the parent
Ms. Okafor, a resource teacher at a San Antonio middle school, learns that the campus plans to move a seventh grader from in-class support to a self-contained class next Monday because of staffing changes. No one has contacted the parent. Ms. Okafor tells the administrator that a change of placement is an ARD committee decision: the parent receives written notice of the meeting at least five school days ahead, the decision rests on the student’s needs and data rather than staffing, and prior written notice precedes any change. Until then, the current IEP is implemented as written.
Students with disabilities follow the student code of conduct, but IDEA limits how long a school may remove a student before the ARD committee must act. The key number is 10 school days. Within that limit, removals are handled as for any student; beyond it, services continue and added protections apply.
Removals totaling 10 school days or fewer
May discipline as it would any student. Services are not required during these days.
A change of placement. Notify the parent that day, provide the procedural safeguards,
More than 10 consecutive school days, or and hold a manifestation determination review within 10 school days.
a pattern totaling more than 10
The ARD committee asks: Was the conduct caused by, or directly and substantially related to, the disability? Was it the direct result of a failure to implement the IEP?
Conduct an FBA (unless one exists) and implement or revise the BIP. Return the student to the prior placement unless parent and district agree otherwise.
The same discipline as for students without disabilities may apply, but services continue so the student can progress in the curriculum and toward IEP goals.
Conduct is not a manifestation
The student may be placed in an interim alternative educational setting for up to 45 school days, whether or not the conduct is a manifestation.
Protections apply if the district knew of a suspected disability: a written parent concern, an evaluation request, or a teacher’s concerns reported to supervisors.
Count days carefully. In-school suspension counts toward the 10 days unless the student continues to receive IEP services, access to the general curriculum, and time with peers. A best answer never has a teacher or principal decide alone that behavior is unrelated to the disability. That determination belongs to the ARD committee, which reviews the IEP, teacher observations, and parent input.
Part B serves ages 3–21 through an IEP; Part C serves birth to 3 through an IFSP delivered by ECI. IDEA provides individualized instruction; Section 504 and the ADA guarantee access, and the ADAAA broadened
ESSA holds schools accountable for all students and caps alternate assessment participation at 1% statewide. Rowley set the FAPE floor, Endrew F. raised it, and Daniel R.R. supplies the LRE test used in Texas. Prior written notice and ARD meeting notice each require at least 5 school days in Texas. More than 10 school days of removal triggers a manifestation determination; weapons, drugs, or serious bodily injury allow a 45-school-day interim setting.
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