Portfolio #5

Spencer Cofer

EDU Portfolio Artifact #5

College of Southern Nevada

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The case we are looking at this week takes place with a student full of disabilities and

many requirements and a principal who has refused the parents request to place the student in

school because of the expenses and liabilities. To go more in depth, we have Debbie Young who

is the principal who served as a special education teacher for many years. Then we have the

family of a Jonathan a boy with many disabilities and is required constant care by a trained

nurse and many other things and his parents request that he be put in a school in the district

and Young refuses. Now we will look to see if Young’s decision is defensible and why it is and is

not defensible.

First for the side of Young and her decision I go to the case of LT v. Warwick School

Committee. In this case we have the family of an autistic student who are looking for tuition

reimbursement from the private school their child was placed in because the parents rejected

the plan offered by the school. In this case the court ruled in favor of the school saying that the

plan put in place for the families’ child was sufficient in helping the student succeed and that

the family should not be reimbursed the tuition. This related to the case at hand, for by saying

no Young is saving herself from this exact problem of the parents suing her for not having the

sufficient resources for Jonathan who needs a lot of care and even a trained nurse on hand at

all times. Just as the court ruled in case of the school in this case I believe they would rule in

favor of Young.

Second case to look at that would be in favor of Young would be that of Board of

Education of Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley. In this case we have Amy

Rowley a deaf student who setup an IEP for her which provided a sign language interpreter and

after two weeks the interpreter felt she was not needed and Amy was given wireless hearing
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aids to help her for the year. However, Rowley’s parents wanted her to be given a sign language

interpreter but the school refused and said the wireless hearing aid was sufficient enough. The

Rowley’s took this to court and won but then the school District appealed and it went to the

supreme court where they ruled to reverse the court’s decision and say that she was given

sufficient tools to learn and was provided a “free appropriate public education”. Just as we

have the case here Young should look at this case and say well they first one the suit against the

school for not being sufficient in providing for their child so how can I be safe and know that I

will be able to provide enough for this child Jonathan.

Now for the case against Young saying no a good court case to look at would be that of

McLaughlin v Holt Public Schools. What we have in this case was a school decided they could

not provide what the McLaughlin Family’s child needed so she would have to go to a school

that was not the neighborhood school. The court ruled that this was incorrect and that the

district would fund for the necessary needs to provide this student with what the student

needed to participate in the neighborhood school instead of going to another school in the

district. Just as we have here with Jonathan I believe the school district could provide the

money for the school to provide exactly what Jonathan needs to be successful in school.

Another good case to go against Young is the case of Irving Independent School District v.

Tatro. In this case we have Amber Tatro who was born with a defect and consequently she had

to be catheterized every several hours. So when she was put into school her school district did

not provide someone who could catheterize her so the family sued. They found it to be a

medical service but one that was needed for her to be able to be educated fairly and properly.
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Just as we have here with Jonathan I believe they can find a nurse to work for the school to help

Jonathan be educated fairly and properly.

In conclusion with this case and the cases I have presented. I have many questions still

relating to Jonathan such as how did he make it through schooling so far had he been home

schooled or was he at other schools that provided. I believe Young is not in the wrong here

because I believe this is a lot to put on any school in the district to have a nurse along with a

student but also to provide that student with many other resources that they probably do not

have the money for at the time. I believe if this went to court it would rule in favor of Young.
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Reference Page

Board of Education of Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley , 458 U.S. 176

(1982).

Irving Independent School District v. Tatro, 468 U.S. 883 (1984)

McLaughlin v Holt Public Schools,133 F. Supp. 2d 994 (W.D. Mich. 2001)

LT v. Warwick School Committee , 361 F.3d 80 (1st Cir. 2004)