Untangling Eligibility Requirements under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

This Article attempts to untangle the web of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act eligibility standards in order to determine who is entitled to its extensive benefits. The overriding question addressed is whether children passing from grade to grade may still be IDEA eligible. When the Supreme Court stated famously in Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley that not every child passing from grade to grade is receiving a free appropriate public education under IDEA, it necessarily recognized a class of children who were IDEA eligible despite passing marks. Identifying the characteristics of these children is the destination of the Article.

But the journey crystallizes the scope of IDEA by identifying which disabling problems IDEA seeks to capture and address, and how sever the problem must be to concern IDEA. The journey also provides courts, hearing officers, educators and parents a clear roadmap to IDEA’s eligibility criteria and the tools to make correct eligibility decisions.