by Common Ground | Aug 26, 2021 | Courts
New Jersey has agreed to improve special education services for inmates with disabilities. The case before U.S. District Court was first brought four years ago by three inmates in the state’s adult jails who said their civil right to an education and all its...
by Common Ground | Apr 20, 2021 | Courts, Features, Professionals, Teachers
The COVID-19 pandemic and its disruption of education has had schools, parents, and advocates wondering about accountability for services for students with disabilities that were lost under school closures, and due to remote and virtual instruction. Dr. Perry Zirkel,...
by Common Ground | Apr 20, 2021 | Courts
In October 2020, the United States District Court in New Mexico issued an important ruling related to COVID and IDEA in Hernandez v. Grisham, a case originally filed as a class action. Plaintiffs challenged the state’s COVID-19 reentry policy for the public...
by Common Ground | Apr 20, 2021 | Courts
Last fall, the role of non-attorney advocates in special education advocacy came under fire when the New Jersey Supreme Court issued “Opinion 56.” The 10-page opinion would have made it more difficult for advocates who are not lawyers to help parents of special...
by Common Ground | Feb 2, 2021 | Courts
In November a federal District Court in New York has dismissed J.T. v. de Blasio, a class action claim alleging that every state and local educational agency in the country is denying FAPE to students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic. The U.S. District...
by Common Ground | Feb 2, 2021 | Courts
A Hudson County school district reached a settlement in December in the case of infant student with autism, who alleged in a lawsuit filed by her parents that she was “subjected to the unlawful and improper use of physical restraints by several employees.” The...
by Common Ground | Aug 5, 2020 | Courts
Three years after the landmark U.S. Supreme Court decision in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District which held that IEPs “must be appropriately ambitious in light of (a student’s) circumstances, just as advancement from grade to grade is appropriately ambitious...
by Common Ground | Feb 23, 2020 | Courts
A judge has ordered a Morris County School district to reimburse the parents of a child with disabilities for four years of private school tuition and transportation as a result of the district’s failure to provide FAPE. The parents had unilaterally placed their son...
by Common Ground | Feb 23, 2020 | Courts
A federal judge heard oral arguments in the case against the New Jersey Department of Education (NJDOE) for failing to meet federal and state timelines for hearing disputes between families and school districts over services provided to students with disabilities. The...
by Common Ground | Nov 19, 2019 | Courts
A Florida judge has ruled that a southwest Florida school district placed a child with disabilities into a program for students with the lowest IQ’s in order to avoid reporting his state test scores. The case involves a 3rd grade student from Sarasota Florida who had...
by Common Ground | Aug 12, 2019 | Courts
An administrative law judge has ordered a New Jersey school district to reimburse parents for three years of tuition and other costs related to unilateral placement at a private school. The matter involves a 9-year-old Burlington County girl with autism, dyslexia,...
by Common Ground | Jan 24, 2019 | Courts
A federal appeals court in the Third Circuit (which covers Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and the Virgin Islands) has issued a ruling upholding the right of a student with disabilities to use a service dog at school as a “reasonable accommodation” under Section...
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