Amicus and Related News

On July 18, COPAA submitted an amicus curiae brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Board of Education of New York v. Tom F. COPAA argued that parents may seek tuition reimbursement under IDEA for a child who has been denied a free appropriate public education but did not previously receive special education services from the school district.

COPAA’s brief addressed the school district’s argument that school districts had not received sufficient notice of the obligation to allow such parents to seek tuition reimbursement, and therefore, ordering schools to do so violated the spending clause. COPAA argued that states had sufficient notice of the fact that parents should not be forced to place their children in inadequate programs as a precondition to finding that the school’s program was inadequate. Due to long-standing Supreme Court and lower court precedent and Department of Education interpretations, states had sufficient notice and no reasonable state could think otherwise. Consequently, there was no valid spending clause objection.

COPAA also argued that IDEA is not simply spending clause legislation, but enacted under the Fourteenth Amendment’s mandate of equal educational opportunity for children with disabilities. Indeed, Congress made clear that it passed the Education for All Handicapped Children Act “to assure equal protection of the law” for students with disabilities.

Furthermore, COPAA’s brief explained that adopting the school districts’ position would insulate it from any consequences for violating IDEA in such situations, even if the school district admitted that it did not provide FAPE.

COPAA’s brief was written by a team of volunteer lawyers at McDermott, Will, and Emery, led by Ankur Goel. COPAA is very grateful for their incredible work and the assistance of the Amicus Committee volunteers. COPAA was joined in its brief by the New Jersey Special Education practitioners.

COPAA’s brief is here

The parents’ brief is available here. Other amicus briefs supporting the family include the Solicitor General, National Disability Rights Network and Autism Speaks.

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