For this 23rd article in the series reviewing recent court decisions concerning appropriate school psychology practice from both professional and legal perspectives, the topic is the substantive standard for free appropriate public education (FAPE) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), with a focus on the classification of…

A persistent problem in the professional literature in school psychology and related fields, such as special education, is the insufficient treatment of legal issues in terms of not only quantity (e.g., Zaheer & Zirkel, 2014) but also quality (e.g., Zirkel, 2014). The quality dimension is illustrated in the coverage of the Supreme Court's…

In this article the author provides legal explanations to the following concerns: (1) Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) and Individualized Education Programs (IEPs); (2) Functional Behavior Assessments (FBAs) and Behavior Intervention Plans (BIPs); (3) Manifestation Determinations under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA);…

In September 1997, the Ridgewood, New Jersey, school district placed J.N., then age 11, in the Windsor School, per the IEP (individualized education program) team's identification of his special needs for structure, safety, and security. As a state-approved private special education school, Windsor signed an agreement with Ridgewood for the…

This examination of a case that is seeking to determine whether a district in Tennessee met its obligation under the Individuals with Disabilities Act to provide a "free appropriate public education" to a student with autism concludes that the courts' decisions to date are already literally remarkable for several reasons. These reasons…