Running head: EDU 210 PORTFOLIO ARTIFACT #5 1

EDU 210 Portfolio Artifact #5

Jessica Brooks

CSN Online Campus

Running head: EDU 210 PORTFOLIO ARTIFACT #5 2

All students have the right to a proper education that is suited towards their needs.

Granted the school may not be able to provide all resources because of funding, but the public

schools have an obligation to provide all children with the best education they can provide.

Debbie Young who is now a high school principal has refused a child with a severe disability.

Mrs. Young believes that Johnathan, the student, should not be placed in the normal classroom

and neither a self-contained classroom. I believe that Mrs. Young does not have the right to

refuse service to Johnathan because he must have a specially trained nurse by his side.

In many Supreme Court cases the schools must later provide support for the child in

need. In the court case Pennsylvania Association of Retarded Citizens v. Common wealth of

Pennsylvania, the schools had been denying students attendance if they had not reached a

“mental age of five years old” by the time they were enrolling in first grade. Students with

mental disabilities were allowed to be excluded from public education. When P.A.R.C brought

this issue to the Supreme court the courts ruled in favor of allowing the children the opportunity

to go to school. The schools were then mandated to put the children in a free public program of

education that had training that was appropriate to the child’s capacity. This meant that the

schools would then get a special education classroom that was self-contained and the children

could learn at their own level. In the case of Principal Young and Johnathan, I believe that the

school could provide adequate service to the child. Given the nature of Johnathan’s condition

that he is profoundly mentally disabled, has spastic quadriplegia, and a seizure disorder I think

that the teachers and other staff will then have to have more training to better equipped

themselves for Johnathan. I believe that Principal Young’s school must undergo more training to

adapt to Johnathan’s needs, but are fully capable to attending to his needs.
Running head: EDU 210 PORTFOLIO ARTIFACT #5 3

In the court case Mills v. Board of Education, 348 F. Supp. 866 (D.D.C. 1972) a school

denied several students of school age because due to financial burdens that were upon the school.

The Court later ended the trial with stating that if there are insufficient funds to finance any

service to the students then the funding must be distributed equally to all students. This meaning

that all schools can provide service to disabled students with mental, behavioral, physical or

emotional disabilities. In the case of Principal Young, she does not have the right to say because

of Johnathan’s extreme case there is a lack of funding to provide him proper service because the

school needs to change their funding distributions and make them more equal to all students.

This means that Johnathan should be able to join any school that he pleases because the school

must accommodate his needs.

Like Johnathan many other students need more attention and more equipment to function at their

best capacity. In the court case Stacy Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools a student was

enrolled in a public elementary school and, needed a service dog that was recommended by her

pediatrician. The school denied the service dog for the girl and was later unenrolled and began

homeschooling. Her parents then filed a suit against the elementary school for violating the

Rehabilitation Act and Title II of the ADA. The Court late ruled that the school was in violation

and had to accept the service dog and the parents could enroll their daughter in the school;

however, due to the discrimination of the school the parents alter enrolled their daughter in a

different public school were her service dog was also allowed. In this court case the student and

her parents provided all the equipment necessary for their child to go to school safely. For

Johnathan, his parents won’t be able to provide all the necessary equipment to allow him to go to

school safely. Johnathan needs a nurse that is at his side constantly and the school can’t provide a

special nurse for him to go to school with. This means that the school is doing the best they can
Running head: EDU 210 PORTFOLIO ARTIFACT #5 4

to provide him free public education, but because of funding and how extremely delicate his case

is he will not get the safest and best education he can. Principal Young has the right to ensure

Johnathan’s safety at school and by doing so she is allowed to deny him access to school due his

condition.

Johnathan has many disabilities one of them being that he needs a specialized nurse with

him throughout the day to monitor his vitals and protect him from seizures. In the case Board of

Education of Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley, a deaf student was attending

regular classes and doing just fine. She receives a FM hearing device to help her hear the teacher

and students. In her next year, she received the hearing device again along with one hour with a

tutor, and three hours with a speech therapist. Her parents sued the school in hopes that they

would provide a sign language interpreters throughout her other classes; however, the school

denied the interpreter because they were not liable for providing the best education for the

student. The school only had to provide benefits that were reasonable for the school and that the

student was still benefitting from them. In Johnathan’s case I believe that the school does not

have to provide him a specialty nurse to monitor him throughout the entire school day. I believe

that Principal Young is alright with giving a reasonable appropriate amount of education to

Johnathan that is allowing him to benefit educationally. In this case if the school is doing as

much as they can to provide him with adequate education and it is still not enough then the

parents should keep him at home and homeschool their child.

Education if a hard thing to talk about with children with disabilities because there is no

straight line that can be drawn for how much the school can provide or not. In this case, I believe

that Principal young should try to have Johnathan at school in a self-contained classroom with a

more trained staff; however, if Johnathan is not getting the proper care and the school is doing as
Running head: EDU 210 PORTFOLIO ARTIFACT #5 5

much as they can then the parents need to unenrolled him from the school and find a proper

school to better fit his needs. I believe that in the court cases of Pennsylvania Association of

Retarded Citizens v. Common wealth of Pennsylvania and Mills v. Board of Education it shows

that schools must try and provide the more reasonable education they can to the student given

that the funding is distributed equally amongst the school, so Johnathan should be able to go the

Principal Young’s school.

Running head: EDU 210 PORTFOLIO ARTIFACT #5 6

References

Board of Ed. of Hendrick Hudson Central School Dist., Westchester Cty. v. Rowley. (n.d.). Oyez.

Retrieved October 8, 2018, from https://www.oyez.org/cases/1981/80-1002

Mills v. Board of Education, 348 F.Supp. 866, 871 (DC Dist. of Columbia 1972)Id. at p. 876.

Retrieved from https://disabilityjustice.org/right-to-education/#cite-ref-5.

Stacy Fry, Et Vir, As Next Friends of Minor E.F., Petitioners v. Napoleon Community Schools,

Et Al, 580 U.S.(2017). Retrieved from https://disabilityjustice.org/right-to-

education/#cite-ref-5.

Pennsylvania Association for Retarded Children v. Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, 334 F.Supp.

1257, 1259 (E.D. Pa 1971). Retrieved from https://disabilityjustice.org/right-to-

education/.