Delaware General Assembly

Signed 8/9/12

The General Assembly has ended, the current status is the final status.

6/5/12

Q. Johnson

Reps. Heffernan, Schooley
Sen. McDowell

Reps. Jaques, Keeley, Kowalko, Lavelle, Longhurst, Mitchell, Osienski, B. Short, M. Smith, Walker
Sen. Cloutier, Sokola, Sorenson

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 14 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO EDUCATION AND EXCEPTIONAL CHILDREN.

This Act allows parents and guardians who successfully challenge the denial of services to their children with special needs to recover the costs of expert witnesses that they needed to hire to advocate for their children. Prior to 2006, many courts held parents were entitled to recover such costs under the IDEA, but a divided U.S. Supreme Court reversed the holdings. Arlington Cent. Sch. Dist. Bd. of Educ. v. Murphy, 548 U.S. 291 (2006). Since that time, many families have been unable to pursue appeals for their children due to the prohibitive cost of retaining expert witnesses, resulting in many children receiving special education services that their parents and treating medical professionals believe to be inadequate. Only parents and guardians who prevailed in their appeals of service denials would be entitled to recover the costs of their experts.

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Takes effect upon being signed into law

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