In 1981 the federal courts decided hundreds of cases involving schools relating to civil rights statutes, the First Amendment, the Fourth Amendment, and the equal protection clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. Lawsuits concerning the handicapped involved such issues as the costs of determining what is equal opportunity in education, full-time…

Discusses the 1975 Education for All Handicapped Children Act in light of constitutional problems associated with handicapped children who attend parochial schools receiving special education and related services. Reasons how and why present Supreme Court might decide in "Zobrest" case regarding a school district providing a sign…

Reviews the Supreme Court decisions under the following subjects: (1) special education; (2) religion and public education; (3) employment and labor; (4) elections and voting rights; (5) freedom of speech; (6) Title IX and other issues of school district liability and immunity; and (7) cases to be decided next term. A list of cases and statutes…

The Supreme Court has agreed to review "Zobrest," regarding sending a state-paid sign language interpreter into a Catholic high school to assist a deaf student. Examines the facts and procedural history of the "Zobrest" case, the analysis applied by the Ninth Circuit, and a few of the many difficulties facing the Court. (MLF)

By deciding some cases and refusing others, the United States Supreme Court has begun to provide answers to some of the legal questions concerning the interpretation of two federal statutes: Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 and the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (Public Law 94-142). The first of these statutes…

This paper takes a brief look at how several courts have interpreted the Education for All Handicapped Children Act, generally known as Public Law 94-142, and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, generally referred to as Section 504. The questions under consideration include the right of an individual to sue under 94-142 and 504; the definition of the…

This conference paper analyzes the least restrictive environment (LRE) provisions in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and reviews and compares the standards created by different Federal Circuit Court decisions on LRE. The following cases are analyzed: (1) Briggs v. Board of Education, which deferred to the public agency's…

Since 1975, the Education for All Handicapped Children Act has been challenged and taken to the Supreme Court six times. Reviews the Court's rulings on the act and notes the alliances and grouping patterns of the opinions, as well as the changing nature of the Court's opinions of the act. (MLF)

Eight papers from a one-day conference for lawyers, judges, and policy-makers discuss the effects on intergovernmental relations of the emerging body of laws, regulations, and court decisions governing federal grants and their recipients. The expanding importance of federal grants, notes an introduction to the papers, has meant both less leeway…