LEGAL DECISIONS AND APPROPRIATE EDUCATION OF SERIOUSLY EMOTIONALLY DISTURBED (SED) STUDENTS

Various legal decisions are exerting considerable influence on concepts about and the practice of special education for seriously emotionally dis-turbed (SED) students. Decisions affecting eligi-bility for services have implications regarding the number of students and the type of student re-ceiving SED services. School discipline, especially exclusion from school, continues to be a major focus of legal decisions. There are also consider-able ramifications of decisions regarding psycho-therapy as a related service for handicapped stu-dents. Special educators of SED students need to understand and examine the issues raised and addressed by such legal decisions; many are fun-damental to educating SED students. The provisions of PL 94-142, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and related state laws and regulations provide a good deal of guidance for the delivery of appropriate education to handicapped students. It is not surprising, however, that many situations have arisen requiring further interpretation by courts, state education agencies, and federal civil rights administrators (Bateman & Herr, 1981). Some of the thousands of such decisions have particular relevance for seriously emotionally disturbed (SED) students and those who serve them. The purpose of this paper is to examine the impact and implications of some key legal decisions as they affect special education for SED students. First, a disclaimer: Generalizing any particular decision can be risky. Each case involves specific facts, and even when important facts of several cases are similar, each case is essentially unique. Additionally, decisions can be changed at higher levels (e.g., appellate courts). Still, when individual cases begin to form a pattern, trends or principles can be generalized that are likely to influence other legal decisions as well as practice and thinking in special education. This has occurred in several areas of concern to special educators of SED students, whereas there are other important areas in which decisions have not clearly formed a pattern. Three key areas that have been addressed by numerous legal decisions include eligibility, discipline, and related services