The question, taken directly from online Supreme Court documents on the case, seems vaguely tedious: "Whether the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 20 U.S.C. ยง 1400 et. seq., incorporates the customary federal rule that the party that initiates the hearing and seeks relief bears the burden of proof in that proceeding."
The technical phrasing and reference to federal rules masks the simplicity of the question. Simply put, the question is this: when parents and school system administration disagree about the appropriateness of an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for a child and parents ask a court to become involved in the process, who has to convince the judge of what? Do the parents have to convince the judge that the IEP is bad for the child? Or, does the school system have to convince the judge that the IEP is good for the child?
But before we discuss the legal technicalities any further, let's talk about the actual case the Supreme court has agreed to hear. The following facts are agreed upon by all parties in this case:
- Brian Schaffer, now 21 and in college, was diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) as a child and had other learning disabilities.
- Brian's parents enrolled him in a private school (Green Acres) when he started school; he attended Green Acres until he was in the seventh grade.
- Green Acres told the Schaffer family that the school was not equipped to meet Brian's needs anymore and asked them to find another place for Brian to go to school.
- Brian's parents met with personnel at a middle school in Montgomery County, Md. (a suburb of Washington, D.C.), and the school
- agreed to place Brian in their special education program
- developed a tentative Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for Brian's parents to consider
- After looking at the IEP, Brian's parents said that they felt that the class sizes at the school were too large. The school offered to allow Brian's IEP to be implemented at a smaller school about 10 minutes from the Schaffers' home. The Schaffers said they would consider that, left the meeting without signing the IEP, and never contacted Montgomery County Public Schools (MCPS) about the IEP again.
- The Schaffer family enrolled Brian at a second private school, Mclean School.
