Rowley and Why it is a Mistake for a School District to Declare that a Child is Ineligible for Special Education On the Basis that He or She is Receiving Passing Grades

Recently I reviewed the facts of another case in which a school and area education agency decided that they did not suspect that a child has a disability because the child has passing grades and is not subject to grade retention. Like other schools and AEAs who have made the same claim, they cite Board of Education v. Rowley in support of that decision. Those agencies might be surprised to learn that in Rowley, the U.S. Supreme Court held that while passage from grade to grade is one important indicator of whether an educational benefit has been conferred, it is not the sole criterion but should be "in the mix" of other considerations. Board of Education v. Rowley, 458 U. S. 176 (1982).

Rowley Briefly: The Rowley case was brought on behalf of, Amy Rowley, a public school student who had a severe hearing disability. The individualized education program (IEP) for her first grade year stated that she would be educated in a regular classroom, use the FM device, and receive instruction from a tutor for the deaf for one hour daily and from a speech therapist for three hours per week. In addition, the Rowleys asked that Amy be provided a qualified sign language interpreter in all her academic classes. When their request was denied, they requested an administrative hearing. After the evidence was presented, the hearing officer decided that an interpreter was not necessary because "Amy was achieving educationally, academically, and socially" without an interpreter. The Rowleys brought a subsequent action in the United State District Court for the Southern District of New York, claiming that the school’s denial of the interpreter was a denial of the "free appropriate public education" guaranteed by the Act, which affirmed the hearing officer’s decision. When the case reached the U.S. Supreme Court, the Court saw things differently. In ruling that Amy’s good grades did not make her ineligible for an interpreter, it stated that while passing from grade to grade is one important indicator of whether an educational benefit has been conferred, it is not the sole criterion but should be "in the mix" of other considerations.