In February, COPAA filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit in D.L. v. Omaha Public Schools in support of the family of a child with a disability. The brief urges the court to reverse the decision of the U.S. District Court for the District of Nebraska because the district court created and applied a lower standard for a free appropriate public education (“FAPE”) that directly conflicts with the FAPE standard required by the U.S. Supreme Court in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District. You can read the amicus brief here.

COPAA Legal Director Selene Almazan and COPAA Amicus Committee Co-Chairs Ellen M. Saideman and Catherine Merino Reisman wrote the amicus brief. The family is represented by Amy Bonn, COPAA member. 

In D.L., the school district placed a young child with autism in a self-contained classroom that was described by school staff as “chaotic” and where the district failed to implement her Individualized Education Program (“IEP”).  The student was repeatedly physically harmed by another student and became afraid to go to school. 

The district court stated in its decision that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) requires “only reasonableness” with respect to providing FAPE to students with disabilities and found that the district had provided the student a FAPE under that standard. As COPAA argued in its brief, the district court misstated the IDEA’s FAPE obligation—which requires, pursuant to Endrew F., that school districts offer and implement an “IEP reasonably calculated to enable a child to make progress appropriate in light of the child’s circumstances”—and that the school district failed to provide the student with a FAPE.