Educating all students, including those with disabilities, is the primary responsibility of local boards of education and the superintendents and administrators employed by them. As most school administrators and board members know, the educational and legal issues involved in providing that education to students with disabilities are increasingly complex and the cost involved continues to escalate. The legal rights of students with disabilities and their parents are contained in a complex morass of laws, regulations, rules, agency interpretations and administrative and court decisions. Challenges to the educational decisions of school districts for students with disabilities are proliferating at an alarming rate. Disability law is probably the fastest growing area of school law, requiring more and more attention from school administrators, local boards of education and their attorneys.

The development of the law defining the legal rights of children with disabilities began in the early 1970’s with court cases which required certain procedures to be followed by school districts in an effort to provide the same educational access to children with disabilities as was provided to non-disabled students.¹ Following these early cases, Congress adopted in 1975 the Education for All Handicapped Children Act (EAHCA), known commonly among educators as Public Law 94-142. In 1990, when reauthorized, the Act was renamed the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). The current version of IDEA was reauthorized in 2004.  The IDEA requires the United States Department of Education to develop extensive federal regulations to implement its provisions. Moreover, each state is required to have a plan approved by the federal Department of Education setting out how the IDEA’s provisions will be implemented in that state. The Georgia legislature has enacted some statutes specifically dealing with special education and the State Board of Education has adopted comprehensive rules applicable to local school districts which impose additional procedural and substantive requirements for the education of children with disabilities.

It is not possible in a single chapter, and no attempt will be made here, to review all of the rules, regulations, administrative decisions, opinions and holdings of the various courts which interpret or apply the IDEA. The intent of this chapter is to highlight several of the significant requirements of the law with which board members and superintendents must be familiar. The practice of educating children with disabilities is replete with acronyms. In addition to IDEA, board members will encounter FAPE, IEP, SST, RTI, LRE, SLD, OHI, MID, EBD and a host of other references that further obscure an easy understanding of this area of school law. This chapter will attempt to provide some limited guidance for those seeking an understanding of the basic concepts of the rights of children with disabilities. In addition to IDEA, this chapter will review briefly the provisions of two other acts of Congress which prohibit discrimination against students with disabilities: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973² and the Americans with Disabilities Act.³