The Supreme Court's Interpretation of the Education for All Handicapped Children Act

Abstract

The Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EHCA), implemented only since 1977, has already caused a great deal of legal controversy, as evidenced by the hundreds of cases that have reached the courts. The many court decisions interpreting the EHCA form the basis of a common law that is as important to special educators as the Act itself. Thus far the U.S. Supreme Court has handed down decisions in four cases that it has heard. In these decisions the Court has defined what is meant by an appropriate education, has clarified the related services provision of the Act, has barred the awarding of attorney fees to the prevailing party in a special education suit, but has upheld a private school tuition reimbursement award to the parents of a handicapped child who successfully argued that the public schools did not provide an appropriate placement. These four decisions have had and will continue to have a profound impact on how the Act is implemented at the local level. The implications of the Supreme Court's pronouncements are examined and discussed in this paper.