Court bolsters rights of students with learning disabilities

WASHINGTON -- A unanimous Supreme Court on Wednesday bolstered the rights of millions of students with learning disabilities in a ruling that requires public schools to offer special-education programs that meet higher standards.

The court struck down a lower standard endorsed by President Donald Trump's nominee to the high court.

Chief Justice John Roberts said it is not enough for school districts to get by with minimal instruction for special-needs children. The programs must be designed to let students make progress in light of their disabilities.

The ruling led to tough questions at the confirmation hearing of Supreme Court nominee Neil Gorsuch. Democratic Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois said the high court had just tossed out a standard Gorsuch himself had used in a similar case that lowered the bar for educational achievement.

In its ruling, the Supreme Court sided with parents of an autistic teen in Colorado who said their public school did not do enough to help their son make progress. They sought reimbursement for the cost of sending him to private school.

The case helps clarify the scope of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal law that requires a "free and appropriate public education" for students with disabilities. Lower courts said even programs with minimal benefits can satisfy the law.

Roberts said the law requires an educational program "reasonably calculated to enable a child to make progress appropriate in light of the child's circumstances." He did not elaborate on what that progress should look like, saying it depends on the "unique circumstances" of each child. He added there also should be deference to school officials.

"When all is said and done, a student offered an educational program providing merely more than de minimis progress from year to year can hardly be said to have been offered an education at all," Roberts said. "For children with disabilities, receiving instruction that aims so low would be tantamount to sitting idly, awaiting the time when they were old enough to drop out."

At Gorsuch's hearing, Durbin said the nominee had gone beyond the standards of his own appeals court by adding the word "merely" in his 2008 opinion approving the "de minimis" -- or minimum -- standard for special-needs education. Durbin suggested Gorsuch had lowered the bar even more.

Gorsuch, handed a copy of the ruling during a break on the third day of his hearings, noted his panel reached its decision unanimously based on a 10-year-old precedent.

The ruling does not go as far as the parents wanted.

They had argued educational programs for disabled students should meet goals "substantially equal" to those for children without disabilities. Roberts rejected that standard, saying it was "entirely unworkable."