Court Case

Yara Valdez

Introduction to Special Education 203

Landmark Court Case Paper

Tues, February 25, 2020

There are many cases that happened throughout history. A lot of them were cases of

people with disabilities, that brought good outcomes afterwards. One of the important cases that

happened in 1989 was the Daniel R.R v. State Board of Education case.
 The case Daniel R.R v. State Board of Education is about a six year old boy with Down

Syndrome, he is mentally retarded and speech impaired. Daniels developmental age was like a

two year old and he was also enrolled in a early childhood education program for half a day.

Daniels parents requested for him to be placed in a regular Pre-Kindergarten classroom so he

could associate with non-disabled children. The school and a Pre-K teacher made a plan for him

to be placed in a regular Pre-Kindergarten class for half a day, and in his previous special

education program for the rest of the day. During this school year it became evident that the plan

was not going to be the best idea.

Daniel had difficulties staying focused without constant individual attention from his

teacher and required a large amount of accommodations. Daniel was not able to learn any of the

skills that his teacher was explaining. The school then decided that he would go back to being

only in the early childhood education program for half a day, but he would have the opportunity

to eat lunch and go to recess with the non-handicapped students with his mothers supervision.

This is why this case got to the Supreme Court. Daniels parents did not agree with this

recommendation so they asked for a due process hearing, leading to the courts. The State Board

of Education won because the court ruled that all the guidelines of EHA were followed. The

court reasoned two things.

The first was weather education in the regular classroom, with the use of supplemental

aids and services, can be achieved satisfactorily for a given child. If it can’t then the school

intends to provide special education or remove the child from general education. The second was

wether the school has mainstreamed the child to the maximum extent appropriate. With this

being said, Daniels parents claimed that the school violated the mainstreaming mandate. This

case was a landmark case because it brought IDEA.

 EHA was vague in it’s definition so it was revised and renamed IDEA. IDEA states that,

“In selecting the least restrictive environment, consideration is given to any potential harmful

effect on the child or on the quality of services that he or she needs, and the child with a

disability is not removed from education in age-appropriate regular classrooms only because of

needed modifications in the general education curriculum.” This case brought many outcomes

like deciding that schools have to accommodate disabled students in regular classrooms but are

not required to change to the level that the student is at. Another thing that it brought later on was

that it laid down that administrators and school psychologists have to provide special education

teachers on how to handle inclusion with their students and in the classroom.

Works Cited

“Daniel R.r., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. State Board of Education, Et Al., Defendants,El Paso

Independent School District, Defendant-Appellee, 874 F.2d 1036 (5th Cir. 1989).” Justia

Law, law.justia.com/cases/federal/appellate-courts/F2/874/1036/382507/.

Gargiulo, Richard M. Special Education in Contemporary Society: an Introduction to

Exceptionality. SAGE Publications, 2015.