Supreme Court Rules in Favor of Public-Funded Special Education

Near and dear in my heart; my Hunter (a very special boy) attends a very special school. The school is quite effective, and I’m pleased with the results, but it doesn’t come cheap.

This, after his K-through-5 years in our local public school system, in which he was simply not challenged enough for his intellect .. he was bringing assignments home that his younger sister was completing easily. After numerous attempts to get him moved into peer-level mainstream classes in various subjects, we gave up on the public school district for him and enrolled him in APL.

From the article:

Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the nation’s special education students are entitled to a "free and appropriate public education." Federal law calls for school districts to reimburse students or their families for education costs when public schools do not have services that address or fulfill the students’ needs.

The court ruled 6-3 in favor of a teenage boy from Oregon whose parents sought to force their local public school district to pay the $5,200 a month it cost to send their son to a private school.

Granted, there isn’t a program against which I can seek reimbursement .. at the moment, all I can do is call my attorney; not a pleasant (or rapid resolution) prospect.

New York Times:”Court Affirms Reimbursement for Special Education”.

About Michael Coates
I am a pragmatic evangelist. The products, services and solutions I write about fulfill real-world expectations and use cases. I stay up-to-date on real products I use and review, and share my thoughts here. I apply the same lens when designing an architecture, product or when writing papers. I am always looking for ways that technology can create or enhance a business opportunity .. not just technology for technology's sake. My CV says: Seasoned technology executive, leveraging years of experience with enterprise and integration architectural patterns, executed with healthy doses of business acumen and pragmatism. That's me. My web site says: Technology innovations provide a myriad of opportunities for businesses. That said, having the "latest and greatest" for its own sake isn't always a recipe for success. Business successes gained through exploiting innovation relies on analysis of how the new features will enhance your business followed by effective implementation. Goals vary far and wide: streamlining operations, improving customer experience, extending brand, and many more. In all cases, you must identify and collect the metrics you can apply to measure your success. Analysis must be holistic and balanced: business and operational needs must be considered when capitalizing on a new technology asset or opportunity.

Leave a Reply

Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in:

WordPress.com Logo

You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Log Out /  Change )

Facebook photo

You are commenting using your Facebook account. Log Out /  Change )

Connecting to %s

%d bloggers like this: