This month, Berney & Sang filed an amicus brief in C.S. v. Butte School District, a special education case pending before the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.  Berney & Sang filed the brief on behalf of the National Center for Learning Disabilities, the Advocacy Institute, the Council for Learning Disabilities, and the Learning Rights Law Center.  The brief asks the Ninth Circuit to rule for C.S., a child with learning disabilities.

The brief argues that the Butte School District violated C.S.’s rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) by failing to investigate and identify his learning disabilities.  Here’s an excerpt from the brief:

The IDEA requires school districts to perform comprehensive evaluations of children with disabilities. This requirement is critical for children like C.S. who have a specific learning disability. Children with learning disabilities present with a variety of learning challenges and unique needs. Without understanding the nuances of a child’s learning disability, school districts cannot develop a reasonably calculated educational program for him—any program developed without such an understanding amounts to guesswork.

Here, Butte School District made no effort to understand C.S.’s learning disabilities, thus failing to take the first basic step required to provide him an appropriate program. That failure doomed his educational program and violated the IDEA.

You can read the full brief here.