Lori Thomas-Johnson
Brief
EDL 517
BRIEF
Citation: Timothy W v. Rochester School District, 875 F.2d954 (1st cir)
Topic: The education of students with disabilities
Relief Sought: All children, no matter how severe their disability, are entitled to a free appropriate education
Issues: 1) The child’s handicap was so severe he was not capable of benefiting from an education, therefore was not entitled to one.
Facts: Timothy was born 2 months premature. As a result, Timothy is multiple handicapped and profoundly mentally retarded. Mother attempted to obtain appropriate services for him. He received services from the Rochester Child Development Center, but not from the
Rochester School District when he became school age. The school district decided that Timothy was not educationally handicapped –that since his handicap was so severe he was not capable of benefiting from an education, therefore was not entitled to one. During the 1981 and 1982 school year, the district did not provide services. Timothy filed a complaint in the US District court alleging that his rights under the Education for All Handicapped Children Act had been violated.
The court decided with Tim. The decision was that the school district misinterpreted the law. The law states that schools must provide an education that a child would benefit from. “Benefit” from was never intended as a method of denying students from education. Timothy W. was entitled to an interim special educational placement until a final IEP for Timothy is developed and agreed upon by the parties. The district should also determine the question of damages.
Finding of the District Court: In favor of Timothy W.
Reasoning: The language of the act makes it clear that a “Zero-reject” policy is at the core of the act, and that no child, regardless of the severity of his or her handicap, is to ever again be subjected to the deplorable state of affairs which existed a the time of the Act’s passage, in which millions of handicapped children received inadequate education or none at all. The act mandates an appropriate public education for all handicapped children, regardless of the level of achievement that such might attain. Congress intended that all handicapped children be educated, it expressly indicated its intent that the most severely handicapped be given priority.