Laws Regarding Disabled Students

ADA & Section 504

The author of this report is to answer two main questions when it comes to the law and its application. The first broad question relates to how IDEA, IDEIA, Section 504 and the ADA overlap to a fairly significant to degree. However, less focus is placed on Section 504 and the ADA a lot of the time and the author has been asked to highlight areas of those two laws and regulations that are significant as compared to IDEA. Second, there will be the description of two significant issues that relate to case law and overall court proceedings. The gist is that oen must ask which students are protected. Regardless, there are concerns about things like placement, planning issues, evaluations, litigation and regulatory enforcement. While the enforcement of disability-related laws may seem cut and dry, there are some perceived gray areas and situations and there needs to be clarity when these situations come to pass.

Analysis

To compare the overall reach, depth and breadth of the ADA, Section 504 and IDEA, a high-level summary each will be completed. Section 504 is part of the broader Rehabilitation Act of 1973. It is an anti-discrimination and civil rights statutes that requires that the needs of students of disabilities to be met at the same overall level as those that are not disabled. In short, the outcomes of non-disabled students should not be disparate and different as compared to disabled people. A disability as defined by this section is one of three things. The first is a person with a mental or physical issue that limits one or more major life activities for the person in question. Second, it is a person that has a prior record of such a disability. Lastly, it is a person that is regarded to have the impairment in question. To be precise, Section 504 specifically pertains to students (Durheim, 2015).

When it comes to the ADA, it is rather similar to Section 504 but is much broader in that it is not limited to school. Indeed, the ADA government website asserts that the ADA "prohibits discrimination and ensures equal opportunity for persons with disabilities in employment, state and local government services, public accommodations, commercial facilities and transportation (ADA, 2015). There was a slight update to the law in 2010, as signed off on by then-Attorney General Eric Holder. That update related mostly to "accessible design" (ADA, 2015). The IDEA act is much more similar to the Section 504 snippet as it specifically pertains to disabled students, although IDEA literally protects and helps children from birth as stated on the ed.gov website (IDEA, 2015).

When it comes to legal proceedings and issues that have arisen and perhaps are controversial, there are two in particular that the author of this report found online. Indeed, the definition of disability has evolved and changed over the years. One example was a lawsuit filed in Michigan. There was apparently a student that was allergic to peanuts. For sure, anaphylaxis can literally kill and the school took the substantial move to ban peanuts from the school including from the snacks and lunches that were dispensed and served by the school. One school district in Michigan institute the ban (which was later upheld) and a parent in another district filed their own lawsuit to have the same done in their district (A-Data, 2015). Another legal issue brings out an important distinction when it comes to disability laws. While the ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act apply to both private and public schools, the IDEA framework only applies to public schools. Private schools are not held to the IDEA standards (OLS, 2015).