The Supreme Court handed down a 6-2 majority ruling today that is a big time victory for parents of disabled children. The Federal law that governs special education is the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), which mandates that children with special needs must be granted free access to appropriate public education. If parents disagree with the education plan a school district provides for their special needs child, parents have right to seek judicial review and, if all else fails, bring a civil suit against the school district on behalf of their child.

However, under the existing lower court rulings, parents have not been considered beneficiaries under IDEA, but instead merely guardians of their child. Hence, parents have had no standing to sue the school system themselves. Instead, they have had to hire an attorney for their child. This has undoubtedly been cost prohibitive for many parents who otherwise would have had a legitimate case.

The Supreme Court found that rights described in IDEA apply equally to the parents and to the special needs child. This makes parents full legal partners to their child under law. Thus, parents are able to bring a civil suit against a school district while representing themselves without an attorney pro se. The case is Winkelman v. Parma City School District (05-983).