Dive Brief:

• The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments this week in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District, a case that might redefine the level of benefit to which special education students are entitled as part of their free, public education.
• The New York Times reports justices seemed uneasy with the idea that providing an education benefit just above trivial is enough, but several were also wary of the financial consequences of making changes to the judicial interpretation, including in the form of costly litigation.
• Lawyers for the family in the case proposed requiring a level of educational services designed to allow each child to progress from grade to grade in the general curriculum, while a lawyer for the federal government, which has generally supported the family, recommended “significant progress toward grade level standards,” rather than progress “as close as possible to grade level standards.”

Dive Insight:

The last time the federal definition of adequate special education services changed was in 1982. The heart of the current case is whether the school district should cover the entire cost of an expensive private school for an autistic child whose parents did not believe he was being adequately served by the public school.

At issue is how much of an educational benefit the school district was legally required to provide. Even if the private school could provide a better education, as long as the home district was providing enough of one to meet its federal obligations, it would be off the hook for the private school tuition. Districts that do not have the capacity to serve students with rare or severe disabilities routinely pay for their tuition at specialized private schools. This case, however, could greatly expand the number of students qualifying for such services.