Students with disabilities are guarded by two pivotal pieces of U.S. federal legislation: the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). These serve as the cornerstone statutes mandating specific obligations for accommodating students with disabilities, especially within K-12 public education.
The scope of protection and assistance for these students can further vary based on regional and state-level regulations. For instance, in the Tucson metropolitan area, parents and students must acquaint themselves with federal regulations and relevant state and local laws. It should be noted that these legal protections are generally applicable to public educational institutions, and private schools are not directly subject to these federal mandates, although they commonly have their own internal policies.
Should a school fail to offer the requisite support to a student with disabilities, parents and guardians must be prepared to advocate for their child's educational needs actively. The Lento Law Firm collaborates with school districts to optimize the level and quality of support structures for student success. The Lento Law Firm Education Law Team is prepared to exhaust every resource to ensure your student has access to FAPE; call 888-535-3686 today or contact us through the online service. Now, become more familiar with the Tucson metro area's educational apparatus and what students with disabilities are afforded under the law.
Tucson Metropolitan Area
With over one million residents in the metropolitan area, Tucson is one of the most significant cultural, economic, and educational hubs in the American West. Centered in Pima County, the Tucson metro area is comprised of major incorporated suburbs like:
- Oro Valley
- Marana
- Sahuarita
- South Tucson
Interior communities such as:
- Casas Adobes
- Catalina Foothills
- Flowing Wells
- Midvale Park
- Tanque Verde
- Tortolita
- Vail
Towns outside the Tucson metropolitan area, but still included, like:
- Benson
- Catalina
- Oracle
- Green Valley
Primary and Secondary Schools
Students in the Tucson metro area primarily attend public schools in the Tucson Unified School District (TUSD), the second-largest district in the state, with 343 public schools. There are also many publicly-funded charter schools with a specialized curriculum and private schools serving Tucson's diverse population.
Each of these public, private, and charter schools may have slightly different policies regarding students with disabilities, from the availability of physical or technological accommodations to appropriate class sizes. Knowing the specifics of each school will enable parents and students to maximize their support. Even though there are differences, each must adhere to federal law.
Colleges and Universities
Tucson is also home to dozens of colleges and universities. Pima Community College has ten campuses dotting the metro region, and the area is also home to world-renowned institutions like the following:
- Arizona School of Acupuncture and Oriental Medicine
- Arizona State University's College of Public Service and Community Solutions
- Brookline College
- Northern Arizona University
- The Art Center Design College
- Tucson College
- University of Arizona
- Wayland Baptist University
These institutions are still required to abide by federal and state law. They tend to have more leeway in their policies for students with disabilities. IDEA, for example, no longer applies once a student graduates from high school. IEPs, discussed below, are not required in colleges or universities, although they can be useful. An existing IEP from high school may provide guidance for how a college or university can support a student.
The expectation underlining this difference in policy between K-12 students and college students is that those attending university can advocate for themselves due to age and maturity. Additionally, once a student is over 18, parents no longer have a legal role to act as an advocate.
Understanding FAPE, Reasonable Accommodations, and IEPs
Under ADA, IDEA, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, schools are required to provide students who have disabilities with the support and resources they require to allow them to complete their education. These laws put more requirements on K-12 educational institutions than colleges and universities.
Some of the key parts of these laws include the following:
- Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). Applying to all children in the U.S., for students with disabilities, FAPE may include additional services or programs at no additional cost to themselves or their families.
- Individualized Education Programs (IEPs): Plans put together by the school's special education personnel, parents, and sometimes the student to create guidelines of what support and resources a student needs for success. These can include reasonable accommodations a school makes to provide students with disabilities the same level of education as those without disabilities.
- Least Restrictive Environment (LRE): This is the environment students with disabilities must be in to make them part of the school community. What LRE means depends on each student's disability and their best interests.
Ideally, the above three should result in students with disabilities gaining the education they desire. However, it's important to note that while all are federal guarantees, there are some instances in which states can alter the support they give students.
Arizona Law
The State of Arizona has additional laws for providing education to children with disabilities. IDEA allows states to determine eligibility for special education for children aged three through nine who are experiencing developmental delays. Arizona law explains that developmental delay means "performance by a child who is at least three years of age but under ten years of age on a norm-referenced test that measures at least one and one-half, but not more than three, standard deviations below the mean for children of the same chronological age."
Further, Arizona mandates that charter schools may not ask prospective students about their disabilities during enrollment, nor can they inquire about a student's IEP or 504 plan. These questions may be asked only after enrollment so that schools don't bias their decision in determining a student's chances for enrollment.
IDEA directs states to provide students with disabilities FAPE until they reach 21. Arizona goes one step further, with the state's students able to access education until the school in which they reach 22.
Every Student Succeeds Act
In 2017, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) approved Arizona's Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA). One of the reasons behind ESSA is to ensure the state distributes federal funds in a way that benefits all students, regardless of their community or family's financial situation.
For students with disabilities, ESSA incorporates multi-tiered systems of support (MTSS). The framework incorporates Universal Design for Learning (UDL) strategies for instruction, and students will move within groups based on the student's response to instruction and intervention as well as in-class assessment results. Intervention strategies will be aligned directly to student needs, especially as they transition between school years. MTSS aims to provide each student with the specialized support and services they need to succeed.
If your Tucson metro area school has not yet rolled out MTSS and you believe its evidence-backed approach would benefit your student, you should contact your school district to see if additional support is available.
Arizona Department of Education
For students who need significant support, the Arizona Department of Education (AZED) offers Exceptional Student Services (ESS), ensuring that public education agencies have special education programs, policies, and procedures that comply with IDEA. ESS provides professional learning opportunities, provides technical and vocational assistance to schools, supports the needs of students' families, monitors schools for compliance with federal regulations, and administers the IDEA Entitlement grant.
Under IDEA's 2004 reauthorization, Arizona emphasizes early intervention with its Child Find program. This program aims to identify students with disabilities as early as preschool to ensure they receive the support they need as close as possible to the start of their education.
Each public agency must inform the general public and all parents within its domain of responsibility of the availability of special education services for students aged 3 through 21 and how to access those services, including information regarding early intervention services for children aged birth through 2 years.
Arizona Special Education Status
In one assessment, there were a few issues raised with how Arizona students with disabilities access FAPE. Experts determined that when there is a disagreement between parents and school officials, it's typically caused by how "appropriate education" is defined and the services schools are required to provide free of charge. Since appropriateness is based on each student's IEP and their progress toward educational goals, FAPE is determined individually. Although what is academically suitable for one child may be different from another, Arizona school districts are considered to be in compliance with federal regulations if the student's IEP "enables the child to achieve educational progress.
Under current federal law, school districts are not required to give students the best possible—per se—education program. FAPE means that programs must only meet the unique needs of a given individual who demonstrates an academic benefit.
Despite Arizona ranking nearing the bottom in per-pupil spending, Pima County school districts spend more than the national average. Yet, there are still funding pitfalls for students with disabilities. This leads to shortages of qualified teachers, a lack of quality training for school employees, and barriers to acquiring equipment or other physical and online support for students with disabilities.
Arizona parents are moving their children into charter schools at an increasing rate. Often smaller than TUSD schools with a more individualized curriculum, they make parents feel more assured their children are getting a valuable education. However, small charter schools are often subject to the same stressors as larger institutions, like funding. The assessment details a previous Government Accountability Office investigation revealing that half of the charter schools visited had "insufficient resources" to provide the special education resources they advertised to parents and children.
To remedy the situation, the USDOE released directives emphasizing that charter schools bear identical responsibilities to traditional public schools in providing FAPE to students with disabilities. The mandates further highlighted the necessity for charter schools to prevent discriminatory practices against students with disabilities, be it during the enrollment phase, participation in extracurricular activities, or disciplinary actions.
Protect Your Student's Right to an Education
Even when Arizona students are accommodated through an IEP or 504 Plan, schools don't always follow through on implementation. Without the appropriate tools for education, your child risks the following consequences:
- Failure to progress academically with peers.
- Vulnerable to unchecked environmental stressors.
- Decreasing sense of self-determination.
- Lack of willingness to continue with post-secondary education.
- Statistically more likely to be victims of school discipline.
Parents may believe their children are better served in smaller settings, but that is a common misconception. Given the nature of funding problems, there may be cases wherein schools were unable to properly track and report issues with IEPs or processes related to fulfilling accommodations. Subsequently, there could be a host of issues unknown to parents that put their children into a lackluster learning environment.
How Can the Lento Law Firm Help You and Your Child?
If your child is a student in the Tucson metro area school that is failing in its legal obligations, you need to hire the Education Law Team at the Lento Law Firm. The Lento Law Firm is a premier National Education Law firm serving students with disabilities. They are passionate advocates who will protect your student's rights guaranteed under federal law.
Regardless of their abilities, each student has a right to FAPE, and when a school district is failing to support your child, you need to act fast. Call 888-535-3686 for a consultation now or use the online service.
