ADA25: #19 of 25 -- K-12 (03:11)

Does the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) cover K-12 Education? You bet! NAD Attorney Tawny Holmes takes a moment to explain. View the entire #ADA25 series at www.nad.org/ADA25.

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TAWNY: When you think of education laws you probably first think of Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). However, that isn't the only law that applies to public and private schools. The ADA applies also. In August of 2013, a case was brought to court by a young girl who is identified as "KM". She sued her school district, Tustin United School District in California to receive CART services. The school originally denied her request because they said she already can learn through her FM system. KM preferred CART because it provided her full access to her education as opposed to using the FM system only. With her lawsuit, the first court decision held that the IDEA already satisfies her rights through the Individualized Education Plan (IEP) meetings and that the court did not need to analyze the ADA. KM decided to appeal her case to the federal Court of Appeals in the 9th Circuit which oversees California and other Western states. The 9th Circuit court held that the court had to analyze both laws, IDEA and ADA because both are separate and different laws, and ADA requires effective communications. The court found that KM was right to request CART services and eventually she received CART services in her classroom. There were three other similar cases: one deaf student needed an FM system, another deaf student needed a sign language interpreter, and one blind student needed Braille materials. After the success of these cases, the U.S. Department of Education and the U.S.Department of Justice worked together and released guidelines in November 2014 about what "Effective Communication" really means for deaf, hard of hearing, blind, and visually impaired students. The guidelines included FAQs and were sent out to schools, parents, and the community. KM's case made a huge impact because it meant that courts had to analyze both laws, IDEA and the ADA in schools. The ADA has different requirements than the IDEA in terms of what "Effective Communication" means. The ADA explains in order to understand what effective communication looks like, one must individually compare the deaf student to hearing students to see if the level of communication and information is equal. The ADA also allows parents and students to make requests for services at any time. The school must adhere to such requests then discuss undue burden or find other ways to meet the student's needs to ensure effective communication happens. If parents, students, or you are looking for more information about how the ADA applies to education, we suggest searching on the internet for "ADA Guidelines on Effective Communication." You can also contact us for more information.

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