Overlawyered » disability & schools

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Thu, 16 May 2013 04:08:46 +0000

More commentators weigh in on the truly horrible new federal campus speech and discipline code [Harvey Silverglate /Juliana DeVries, Minding the Campus; Wendy Kaminer, The Atlantic; Will Creeley, HuffPo; Scott Greenfield; Reason TV; my two cents] More: Greg Lukianoff, WSJ.
Feds: states must impose extensive disability-rights regime — including obligations to accept students with difficult accommodation needs — on private/religious schools participating in voucher programs [Bagenstos, Disability Law; Ramesh Ponnuru (noting that loading new regulatory burdens onto private and religious schools may not be displeasing to school choice opponents in the administration)] NYC’s famous selective/performance schools obliged to take special ed kids who can’t meet standard entrance or audition requirements [Inside Schools]
Volunteer-led school band survives shutdown attempt by Oregon teachers’ union [Katherine Mangu-Ward]
AFT: donate to groups that oppose our aims, and we’ll see that you pay [Jason Bedrick, Cato]
Chicago: “Teachers union plans to file civil rights suits to stop school closings” [Chicago Tribune]
Newly passed Minnesota “anti-bullying” law will expand state control over local schools [Pioneer Press] Court proceedings over alleged taunting and insults proliferate under New Jersey’s law [Star-Ledger via Reason]
“Graduates, your ambition is the problem” [Roger Pilon on the president's Ohio State commencement address]

Tags: Barack Obama, bullying, Chicago, colleges and universities, disability & schools, labor unions, Minnesota, New Jersey, Oregon, schools

Schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Student Who Sued GVSU Over Campus Pet Rule Honored”

Walter Olson — Mon, 29 Apr 2013 12:30:24 +0000

First the complaint, then the money, now the public accolade: as we noted last month, student Kendra Velzen filed a complaint — and got a $40,000 settlement — after administrators at Grand Valley State University in Michigan declined to allow her emotional-support guinea pig to live with her in the dorm, even though she had a doctor’s note for it. Now the “Fair Housing Center of West Michigan has given … Velzen its annual Outstanding Effort by an Individual award. The group says Velzen was honored for promoting ‘equal housing opportunity for university students throughout the country.’” The center has a previous connection with the case, having assisted Velzen in her complaint. [AP/WILX]

Tags: colleges and universities, disability & schools, Michigan, service animals

“Student Who Sued GVSU Over Campus Pet Rule Honored” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Schools roundup

Walter Olson — Fri, 12 Apr 2013 04:05:07 +0000

Appalling: pursuing the logic of equality arguments, prominent constitutional law scholar Erwin Chemerinsky has proposed abolishing private/religious/home K-12 schooling [Eugene Volokh, Rick Garnett, Marc DeGirolami]
How wrong is the NRA on school security? So wrong that even Marian Wright Edelman makes more sense [Gene Healy]
Schools, marriage, and self-replicating elites: Ross Douthat tells some secrets of the NYT-reading class [NYT]
Critics flay Connecticut bill to require school mental health checkups of children [Raising Hale]
“How the Anti-Bully Movement is Hurting Kids: An Interview with Bully Nation’s Susan Porter” [Tracy Oppenheimer, Reason]
Montgomery County, Maryland pols concerned some public schools might become unfairly good [DC Examiner] Also in Maryland, there’s a push to emulate a truly bad New Jersey idea by shifting the burden of proof onto schools in special education disputes [WaPo]
Telephone frustration in New Haven: “How public schools drive us away…” [Mark Oppenheimer]

Tags: bullying, Connecticut, disability & schools, Erwin Chemerinsky, guns, Maryland, New Jersey, psychiatry, schools

Schools roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Massive new mandate for schools to provide disabled sports

Walter Olson — Fri, 08 Feb 2013 12:54:32 +0000

Don’t you wish we’d heard more about this before the election, and not just afterward?

Breaking new ground, the U.S. Education Department is telling schools they must include students with disabilities in sports programs or provide equal alternative options. The directive, reminiscent of the Title IX expansion of athletic opportunities for women, could bring sweeping changes to school budgets and locker rooms for years to come.

Schools would be required to make “reasonable modifications” for students with disabilities or create parallel athletic programs that have comparable standing as mainstream programs.

[AP/Yahoo, New York Times, Michael Petrilli/NR ("The Obama Administration Invents a Right to Wheelchair Basketball")]

Tags: disability & schools, sports

Massive new mandate for schools to provide disabled sports is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Teacher claims discrimination over her fear of kids”

Walter Olson — Sun, 13 Jan 2013 05:15:19 +0000

“A longtime French and Spanish high school teacher is suing the Mariemont school district, alleging it discriminated against her because she has a disability – she has a phobia of young children.” [Cincinnati Enquirer] More: Eric Owens, Daily Caller.

Tags: Cincinnati, disability & schools

“Teacher claims discrimination over her fear of kids” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Feds rewrite college cafeteria menus under ADA

Walter Olson — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 19:06:45 +0000

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Lesley University in Cambridge, Mass. was in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act because it failed to

* Continually provide ready-made hot and cold gluten- and allergen-free food options in its dining hall food lines;

* Develop individualized meal plans for students with food allergies, and allow those students to pre-order allergen free meals, that can be made available at the university’s dining halls in Cambridge and Boston;

* Provide a dedicated space in its main dining hall to store and prepare gluten-free and allergen-free foods and to avoid cross-contamination;

And much more. The college has also agreed to pay $50,000 to students affected by its earlier policies. [J. Christian Adams] Similarly: Hans von Spakovsky, FoxNews.

P.S. NPR report confirms demand from advocates for “gluten-free food [that] is prepared and served in dedicated areas.”

Tags: allergies, colleges and universities, disability & schools

Feds rewrite college cafeteria menus under ADA is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Penelope Trunk: “How To Hack Public School”

Walter Olson — Thu, 27 Dec 2012 15:31:42 +0000

Take advantage of IDEA and the feds’ disapproval of test-accommodation flagging:

3. Classify your kid as having some sort of learning difference. Get your kid an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) early on so that they get unlimited time taking the SAT. The classification is not reported to colleges, so it’s just seen simply as a really high score.

You might think this is extreme, but in New York City parents get their kid classified as special needs in order to get a leg up getting into elite preschools. So doing this to get into an elite college seems fine. And look, it’s hard to get an IEP when your kid is two years from taking the SAT. Everyone wants an IEP then. It’s easy when you have a first-grader. Most first graders look like they need an IEP when they are in school because school is so uncomfortable for young kids.

[Penelope Trunk]

Tags: disability & schools

Penelope Trunk: “How To Hack Public School” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Will lawmakers slip disparate impact, punitive damages into Title VI?

Walter Olson — Tue, 11 Dec 2012 11:51:17 +0000

Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964, which prohibits discrimination by recipients of federal education spending and other programs, does not currently allow private litigants to sue demanding punitive (as distinct from compensatory) damages, nor do the courts entertain private suits complaining of “disparate impact” under it. Some trial lawyers and advocates of expansive discrimination law have long wanted to change that, and now Hans Bader of the Competitive Enterprise Institute is warning that there are efforts afoot to slip an expansion into law by attaching it to some “must-pass” piece of legislation. An effort by Democratic senators to attach it to the Defense Authorization Act appears to have fallen short, but it may be back as a rider on other bills, with serious courtroom consequences, Bader warns, for schools and colleges and also for doctors and hospitals.

Tags: disability & schools, discrimination law, disparate impact, hospitals, punitive damages, schools

Will lawmakers slip disparate impact, punitive damages into Title VI? is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“DOJ Intervenes In LSAT Disability Bias Class Action, Says ‘Flagging’ of Tests Violates ADA”

Walter Olson — Mon, 08 Oct 2012 12:01:01 +0000

The U.S. Department of Justice is taking the position that it violates the Americans with Disabilities Act for the Law School Admission Council to inform law schools that test-takers got extra time or other accommodations after lodging demands under the ADA. The ABA is siding with disabled-rights activists in calling for an end to test score flagging. [ABA Journal]

Tags: disability & schools, law schools, testing

“DOJ Intervenes In LSAT Disability Bias Class Action, Says ‘Flagging’ of Tests Violates ADA” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

DoJ: recreation program discriminates against disabled

Walter Olson — Fri, 05 Oct 2012 04:02:31 +0000

The U.S. Department of Justice has sued the Northern Illinois Special Recreation Association, saying that it is in violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act because it refuses to administer a medication for the relief of grand mal seizures. Two students wish to participate in the program who have a potential need of the medication on an emergency basis. “The medication, Diastat AcuDial, comes in a pre-filled syringe with a plastic tip and must be administered through a person’s rectum.” [Daily Herald]

Tags: disability & schools, disabled rights

DoJ: recreation program discriminates against disabled is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system