A recent Federal court ruling in Doe ex. rel. Doe v. Township High School District 214 stated that the parents of a student with Autism did not have to exhaust IDEA remedies prior to filing a federal court complaint related to disability discrimination. The parents of the student, who filed a complaint after the District had disciplined their child for behaviors related to his disability, were not claiming a denial of FAPE in the complaint. Instead, they were suing the district for discrimination after administrators pulled the student out of class, subjecting him to searches, and disciplining him for behaviors related to his social deficit. The Federal judge ruled that because the parents were not seeking relief related to the IDEA, they had a right to move forward with the discrimination claims without filing for due process first. However, the judge also ultimately dismissed the parents’ discrimination claim, arguing that the parent could not prove that the student was excluded from school programming solely due to discriminatory practices.
June 2020
