Part I of this article explains IDEA and the significance of the Board of Education v. Rowley decision to judicial review in IDEA cases. Part II describes autism and its classification as a disability for special education eligibility, and describes approaches to education of the autistic child. Part III analyzes the recent First Circuit decision in Lt. TB. v. Warwick School Committee. as representative of the resolution of methodology disputes in these cases, and also looks at other federal cases to draw out their rationales. This section of the article identifies the guidance these decisions offer to schools and parents, and considers the structural appropriateness of IDEA's provisions, as interpreted and applied in Rowley, to disputes like these. It challenges reviewing courts to develop rubrics for assessing the appropriateness of an educational approach for a particular child, in order to realize IDEA's designation of the court as the ultimate guarantor of IDEA rights. Hazards lie in allowing deference to turn into blind acceptance. Too much deference and insufficient scrutiny of the soundness of a school's proposal for the education of a child with a disability can encourage school district decisions based more on considerations of money and expedience than on appropriateness to the individual child's needs. It may also place the child's educational future at risk.