Preview of Forest Grove School District v. T.A.

Should disabled children who do not get the individualized help they need at public schools be able to force their public schools to pay for them to attend private schools? The Supreme Court will grapple with that question during oral arguments on April 28 in Forest Grove School District v. T.A. In her preview of the case, E. Chaney Hall boils the case down to statutory interpretation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Hall points out that though 1997 amendments to the act narrowed students' ability to force public schools to pay private-school tuition, those amendments did not completely foreclose tuition payments in cases where a school provided no special education whatsoever. Hall argues that, as a matter of equity, the Court should interpret the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to permit tuition reimbursement for disabled children who do not receive any special education from their public schools.