Supreme Court Releases Special Education Opinion

Tuesday, May 22, 2007
Contributed by: Andrea L. Slater Gulley

On Monday, May 21, 2007, the United States Supreme Court released its opinion in the Winkleman v. Parma City School District case. At issue in Winkleman was "whether a non-lawyer parent of a child with a disability may prosecute IDEA actions pro se in federal court." Winkleman v. Parma City Sch. Dist., 550 U.S. ___ (2007); see also "Supreme Court to Hear Third IDEA Case in Two Years."

Rather than focusing directly on the above-stated issue, the Court instead focused on the rights granted to parents under the IDEA. "[The] IDEA, through its text and structure, creates in parents an independent stake not only in...procedures and costs...but also in the substantive decisions to be made." The IDEA "does not differentiate...between the rights accorded to children and the rights accorded to parents." Accordingly, parents have independent, enforceable rights, may be "aggrieved parties," and are entitled to prosecute their IDEA claims on their own behalf. Because of this determination, the Court declined to address whether the IDEA entitles parents to litigate their child's claims pro se and remanded the case.

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