DREDF, along with five other disability advocacy groups, filed an amicus brief in AA v. Seattle Public School District before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, arguing that schools must address bullying and harassment of students with disabilities that prevent them from accessing a meaningful educational benefit. The case was brought on behalf of a Black sixth-grader with disabilities who was the target of racial bullying, including the use of racial slurs, which resulted in harm to the student’s emotional and mental health and impeded his ability to learn.
When students with disabilities are bullied, school districts have an obligation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) to address it to ensure they can still access their education. If the school district fails to do so, the school district has denied that student a free appropriate public education (FAPE).
But the federal district court below in this case, applied a Ninth Circuit case M.L. v. Fed. Way Sch. Dist., 394 F.3d 634 (9th Cir. 2004), which incorrectly held that a bullied student is not denied FAPE unless the student can show the school was “deliberately indifferent” to the bullying and the student derived “no benefit” from their education as a result. Our brief argues M.L. was wrongly decided: this is the legal standard that applies in private damages cases, but not FAPE cases. The IDEA requires much more of school districts: it puts an affirmative obligation on schools to provide a meaningful educational benefit.
