Juvenile & Special Education Law Clinic

Article by Prof. Joe Tulman from the American Bar Association's Children's Right Litigation Committee

Applying Disability Rights to Equalize Treatment for People with Disabilities in the Delinquency and Criminal Systems

Joseph B. Tulman, Applying Disability Rights to Equalize Treatment for People with Disabilities in the Delinquency and Criminal Systems, 8 A.B.A. Child. Rts. Litig. Committee 1 (Spring 2006).

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Article by Prof. Joe Tulman from the University of the District of Columbia Law Review

The Role of the Probation Officer in Intake: Stories from Before, During, and After the Delinquency Initial Hearing

Joseph B. Tulman, The Role of the Probation Officer in Intake: Stories from Before, During, and After the Delinquency Initial Hearing, 3 D.C. L. Rev. 235 (1995).

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Article by Prof. Joe Tulman from the Whittier Journal of Child and Family Advocacy

Disability and Delinquency: How Failures to Identify, Accommodate, and Serve Youth with Education-Related Disabilities Leads to Their Disproportionate Representation in the Delinquency System

Joseph B. Tulman, Disability and Delinquency: How Failures to Identify, Accommodate, and Serve Youth with Education-Related Disabilities Leads to Their Disproportionate Representation in the Delinquency System, 3 Whittier J. Child & Fam. Advoc. 3 (2003).

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Special Education Manual Produced by the Juvenile Law Clinic

Special Education Advocacy Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) For Children in the Juvenile Delinquency System

Edited by Joseph B. Tulman and Joyce A. McGee. 1998.

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Introduction and Table of Contents

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Chapter 1: The Best Defense is a Good Offense: Using Special Education Advocacy for Delinquency Clients

1. The objectives: Getting children educated; getting children out of detention; getting children out of the delinquency system
2. The Problem: Incarcerating children unnecessarily, particularly children with disabilities
   1. The prevalence of special education needs among children in the delinquency system
   2. The failure to address educational needs of pre-delinquent and court-involved youth
3. Client service considerations: Whether and how to use special education advocacy for delinquency clients

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Chapter 2: Strategies for Using Special Education Law to Improve the Outcome of an Individual Delinquency Case

1. Using special education in support of a motion to dismiss for lack of jurisdiction
   1. Status offense cases
   2. Delinquency cases
2. Using special education in support of a motion to dismiss for social reasons
3. Using special education during the intake process
4. Using special education as a justification for keeping the child in the community
5. Using special education rights to guide the residential placement process for delinquent youths
6. Using special education evaluations to demonstrate that a child with a disability did not or could not comprehend Miranda Warnings

Strategic Overview

• Steps to Special Education Advocacy
• Steps to Special education Advocacy For a Delinquency Case
  • Preliminary Steps and Organizing Actions
  • Steps to Take in an Individual Case
• Summary of Strategies for Obtaining Release from Detention or Other Incarceration For Delinquency Clients
• Gerald's cases: A comprehensive joint special education and delinquency legal strategy
• Ray's cases: Designing a meaningful comprehensive IEP

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Chapter 3: An Organizing Strategy for Children's Advocates: Combining Special Education with Delinquency Representation

1. Case aggregation strategy
2. Roles of persons in the juvenile justice system
   1. The child
   2. The defense attorney: Ethical problems
   3. The parent or guardian
   4. The judge
   5. Prison personnel and youth services workers

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Chapter 4: Delinquency, Discipline and Disabilities

1. School personnels' programmatic obligations towards students with behavioral issues
2. Basic student rights in school discipline
   1. Procedural due process
   2. Searches and investigations
   3. Disability discrimination in investigations
   4. Case histories
3. Disciplinary exclusion under the IDEA as amended
   1. Legal background
   2. Disciplinary exclusion as a change in placement
   3. Supplementary rights and procedures in disciplinary exclusion: Manifestation reviews
   4. Disciplinary exclusion of students accused of conduct involving drugs, weapons or dangerous behavior
   5. Notice, hearing and "Stay-put" rights under the IDEA as amended
   6. IDEA rights of students not previously determined eligible for special education and related services
   7. Exclusions of ten days or less under the IDEA
4. Disciplinary exclusion under § 504 and the ADA
5. School-filed crime reports and delinquency petitions
   1. Morgan v. Chris L.
   2. IDEA amendments of 1997

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Chapter 5: Special Education Rights for Juveniles Young Adults in Adult Detention Facilities

1. The IDEA and children incarcerated in juvenile facilities
2. The IDEA and children incarcerated in adult corrections facilities
   1. Children aged eighteen through twenty-one
   2. All children incarcerated in adult facilities
3. Using the IDEA in representing children in delinquency matters or in criminal cases: Getting them out and keeping them out of incarceration
   1. In general
   2. Oliver's case: Using special education advocacy to extricate a child from a delinquency incarceration facility
   3. Using special education advocacy on behalf of young people facing incarceration in adult facilities
4. Running into walls on the way to prison deconstruction
5. Conclusion

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Chapter 6: The Special Education Process: Eligibility & Entitlement

1. Eligibility
   1. The IDEA: The basic federal law for children with disabilities affecting education
   2. The Rehabilitation Act
2. Entitlement
   1. The statutory and regulatory entitlement
   2. The Supreme Court's definition of FAPE

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Chapter 7: The Special Education Process: Investigating and Initiating the Special Education Case

1. An overview on investigation
   1. Preparing a chart and a time line
   2. Engaging an expert witness or consultant
   3. Interviews: People to see and questions to ask
   4. Documents to obtain
2. The parent as client: Understanding the consequences of joint representation
3. Developing a theory of the case
   1. Developing a special education theory
   2. Developing a special education theory applicable to the Delinquency case: A reminder of the advantages in understanding special education advocacy for delinquency clients

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Chapter 8: The Special Education Process: Evaluations

1. Understanding diagnosis and educational testing
   1. Serious Emotional Disturbance (SED)
   2. Specific Learning Disabled (SLD)
   3. Mental Retardation (MR)
   4. Other Tests
2. Procedures related to testing

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Chapter 9: The Special Education Process: Individualized Educational Program

1. Parent participation
2. Purpose of the IEP conference
3. Contents of the IEP
4. Transition Services
   1. Goals of transition planning
   2. Transition planning
   3. Other legal resources for transition services
5. Preparing for the IEP
6. The IEP Conference and Its Participants
   1. When parties disagree
   2. Follow-up to the IEP conference

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Chapter 10: The Special Education Process: Placement

1. Continuum of alternative placements
2. The least restrictive environment
3. Residential placements

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Chapter 11: The Special Education Process: Due Process Rights

1. Records
2. Independent evaluations
3. Notice
4. Consent and surrogate parents
5. The "Stay Put" provision

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Chapter 12: The Special Education Process: Due Process Hearings

1. Hearing rights and procedures
2. Hearing preparation
   1. Identifying the legal issues
   2. Filing a complaint and requesting a hearing
   3. Preparing documents
   4. Preparing witnesses
3. Conducting a hearing
4. Follow-up

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Chapter 13: The Special Education Process: Remedies

1. Some general strategic considerations
2. Private related services
3. Private placement
   1. Legal entitlement to private placement
   2. Strategies for attacking public placement
   3. Strategies for demonstrating appropriateness of private placement
   4. Documents
   5. Testimony
   6. Some pros and cons of private placement for students in the delinquency system
4. Compensatory education
5. Damages and fees

Postscript

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