{"id":12128,"date":"2014-11-13T09:00:38","date_gmt":"2014-11-13T13:00:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=12128"},"modified":"2014-11-12T18:37:16","modified_gmt":"2014-11-12T22:37:16","slug":"federal-legal-requirements-meeting-the-communication-needs-of-students-with-disabilities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/federal-legal-requirements-meeting-the-communication-needs-of-students-with-disabilities\/","title":{"rendered":"Federal Legal Requirements: Meeting the Communication Needs of Students with Disabilities"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Federal%20Legal%20Requirements%3A%20Meeting%20the%20Communication%20Needs%20of%20Students%20with%20Disabilities\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><p><strong>New guidance on the rights of students with hearing, vision, or speech disabilities.<\/strong><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Students with disabilities, like all students, must be provided the opportunity to fully participate in our public schools.<\/p>\n<p>A critical aspect of participation is communication with others.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #800000;\">November 12, 2014:<\/span> <\/strong>U.S. Department of Education&#8217;s Office for Civil Rights and Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services issued <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/about\/offices\/list\/ocr\/letters\/colleague-effective-communication-201411.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Joint Guidance (Letter to Educators)<\/span><\/a> about the rights of public elementary and secondary students with hearing, vision, or speech disabilities to effective communication.<\/p>\n<p>Public schools <em>are responsible for ensuring<\/em> that communication with students who have hearing, vision, or speech disabilities is as effective as communication with all other students.<\/p>\n<p>Three Federal laws address the obligations of all public schools to meet the communication needs of students with disabilities.<!--more--><\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>IDEA<\/strong> requires that schools make available a free appropriate public education (FAPE), consisting of special education and related services, to eligible children with disabilities (including communication needs).<\/li>\n<li><strong>Title II<\/strong> requires schools to ensure that students with disabilities receive communication that is as effective as communication with others through the provision of appropriate auxiliary aids and services.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Section 504<\/strong> of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (Section 504) requires schools to provide FAPE to a student with a disability.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Public schools must apply both IDEA and Title II requirements for effective communication when meeting the communication needs of students with a hearing, vision, or speech disability who are eligible for an IEP. (Compliance with IDEA can satisfy Section 504&#8217;s requirements to provide FAPE.)<\/p>\n<p>This could mean that in some cases, as well as a program spelled out in a child&#8217;s IEP, the school may have to provide auxiliary aids or services under Title II that are not required under IDEA.<\/p>\n<p>See <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/law\/caselaw\/2014\/case.9th.cir.km.v.tustin.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><em>K.M v. Tustin Unified School District<\/em><\/span><\/a>. The Ninth Circuit addressed IDEA and Title II effective communication obligations.<\/p>\n<p><strong>In response<\/strong> &#8211; The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) says the new guidance &#8220;misses the mark!&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/www.copaa.org\/news\/202401\/US-DOE-and-DOJ-Guidance-On-Communication-Misses-the-Mark.htm\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">US DOE and DOJ Guidance On Communication Misses the Mark<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n<p>&#8220;<em>K.M. v. Tustin Unified School District<\/em> victory could help thousands of students yet new guidance doesn\u2019t quite go far enough.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>As COPAA noted &#8220;in its <a href=\"http:\/\/c.ymcdn.com\/sites\/www.copaa.org\/resource\/collection\/FC30F011-EAB6-44BE-9721-1F718DA268C1\/2012-01-24_COPAA-Tustin_-_Amicus_Brief.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">amicus brief in this case<\/span><\/a> &#8212; public policy mandates affording children with disabilities the full benefit that all three statutes convey, not just the floor provided by one of them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><strong>DOE Guidance:<\/strong>\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/about\/offices\/list\/ocr\/docs\/dcl-faqs-effective-communication-201411.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Frequently Asked Questions<\/strong><\/span><\/a> on Effective Communication for Students with Hearing, Vision, or Speech Disabilities in Public Elementary and Secondary Schools<\/p>\n<p>The FAQ document is intended to help schools <em><strong>understand and comply with federal legal requirements<\/strong> <\/em>on meeting the communication needs of students with disabilities.<\/p>\n<p>DOE also released a <em>Fact Sheet<\/em> for Parents available in both <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/about\/offices\/list\/ocr\/docs\/dcl-factsheet-parent-201411.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">English<\/span><\/a> and <a href=\"http:\/\/www2.ed.gov\/about\/offices\/list\/ocr\/docs\/dcl-factsheet-bullying-201410-sp.pdf\"><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Spanish<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New guidance on the rights of students with hearing, vision, or speech disabilities. Students with disabilities, like all students, must be provided the opportunity to fully participate in our public <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/federal-legal-requirements-meeting-the-communication-needs-of-students-with-disabilities\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[224,57,11],"tags":[1214,111,1309,1213,1216,1212,1215],"class_list":["post-12128","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-education-policy","category-fape","category-special-ed-law","tag-communication","tag-communication-needs","tag-fape","tag-hearing-disability","tag-idea-legal-requirements","tag-speech-disability","tag-vision-disability"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=12128"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12128\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":12136,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/12128\/revisions\/12136"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=12128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=12128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=12128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}