COVID-19 and Students with Disabilities: A Snapshot of Legal Activity to Date

The COVID-19 pandemic, which resulted in the closure of public schools in March 2020 and the return from remote to inperson instruction for varying periods depending on the state and locality, would appear to be a fertile field for legal activity under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and the pair of civil rights acts--Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (§ 504) and the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Added to the unprecedented systemic challenges, the special and varying needs of students with disabilities posed a particular problem for their parents as well as their teachers. The COVID-19 guidance issued by the federal agencies that administer these disability laws--the U.S. Department of Education's Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) and, within it, the Office for Special Education Programs (OSEP) for the IDEA and the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) for § 504/ADA--provided school districts with only limited latitude in applying the regulatory requirements of these statutes, such as the central obligation for a free appropriate public education (FAPE).  The individualized requirements and alternative dispute resolution mechanisms of the IDEA and § 504/ADA, including decisional administrative avenues for adjudication and investigation,³ provide the special leverage and outlets for legal activity concerning these problems.
 

The purpose of this relatively short article is to provide an overview of the legal activity resulting from the pandemic in these investigative and adjudicative forums, with particular attention to culminating court decisions. In general, neither the frequency nor the outcomes of the decisional legal activity to date has come close to the potential boom and boon for parent-plaintiffs that one might expect.