The Transformation of the Definition of FAPE in the Ninth Circuit
J.L. and M.L. and their minor daughter, K.L. v. Mercer Island School District (WD WA 2006)
On December 8, 2006, the United States District Court for the Western District of
Washington at Seattle decided the standard of what constitutes a free appropriate public
education (FAPE) for children with disabilities that has been utilized since the early-
1980s by school districts, state educational agencies, administrative, state and federal
courts is no longer suitable. This standard, as defined by the U.S. Supreme Court in the
1982 decision Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central SD v. Rowley, merely
required "that a State provide specialized educational services to handicapped children".
Further, the U.S. Supreme Court stated that states were under no statutory obligation to
"maximize each [disabled] child's potential 'commensurate with the opportunity provided
other children'. The U.S. District Court, in J.L. and M.L. and their minor daughter, K.L.
v. Mercer Island School District (2006), found that the Rowley standard had "set the bar
too low" for children with disabilities.
In the case of Mercer, the Court, relying heavily on the purpose, intent, and findings of
Congress delineated in the reauthorized Individuals with Disabilities Education Act of
1997 and 2004 (IDEA), determined that a FAPE is no longer about gaining access to
education or the receipt of "some" specialized instruction and educational benefit.
Instead, the Court found that educational benefit under the IDEA must be "meaningful".
To this end, it declared that a school district's educational "programs and results" must
"reflect the [IDEA's] emphasis on preparation for self-sufficiency". A FAPE, under the
Mercer standard, is special education and related services "designed…to prepare [all
children with disabilities] for further education, employment, and independent living" (20
U.S.C. 1400(d)(1)(A)).
To read the Rowley and Mercer Island decisions:
Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Amy Rowley, et. al. 458 U.S. 176
(1982)
http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/ussupct.rowley.htm
J.L. and M.L. and their minor daughter, K.L. v. Mercer Island School District (WD WA 2006)
http://www.wrightslaw.com/law/caselaw/07/WA.jl.misd.htm