The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA, 2005) requires states, through local school boards, to provide students with disabilities with a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment consistent with the content of their Individualized Education Programs (IEPs). As important as it is to educate students with disabilities, the cost of serving these children is much higher than that of their peers in regular education.
Most recently, the Tenth Circuit upheld Rowley’s “some educational benefit” standard in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District RE-1 (2015). In Endrew F., the panel affirmed that a school board in Colorado complied with the IDEA by providing a child with autism with a program granting him “some educational benefit.” Later courts have interpreted this standard as requiring more than trivial or de minimis educational progress, adding to the confusion by failing to define what boards must provide.
In light of the split between federal circuit courts, the Supreme Court entered the fray over the level of services school boards must provide students with disabilities in order to establish a national standard.
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