Disability Matters: Toward a Law School Clinical Model for Serving Youth with Special Education Needs

Clinical Law Review, Vol. 11, pp. 271-334 (2005)

UC Berkeley Public Law Research Paper No. 2359799

77 Pages Posted: 4 Dec 2013

See all articles by Patricia Massey

Patricia Massey

Legal Advocates for Children and Youth (LACY)

Stephen A. Rosenbaum

University of California, Berkeley - School of Law; University of California, Berkeley - Othering & Belonging Institute (formerly Haas Institute for a Fair & Inclusive Society); University of Washington - Disability Studies Program

Date Written: April 1, 2005

Abstract

This article examines the role that law school clinics could play in remedying a gap in legal services for youth with special education needs while simultaneously enhancing law students’ awareness and understanding of disabilities and providing students with unique skills. The authors show that the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), recently reauthorized by Congress, places the burden of enforcement on parents but leaves these parents — particularly those marginalized by poverty, race, language or immigration status — without sufficient access to legal representation. The authors suggest that this representation gap is aggravated by lawyers’ and law students’ lack of awareness of the civil rights implications of this inequity and sometimes exacerbated still further by disability bias. The authors contend that law schools have an obligation to confront such “dis-awareness” by raising issues of disability discrimination and disability rights in the classroom and in clinical programs. Drawing on their informal survey of law school clinics that address the subjects of special education, child advocacy and juvenile justice, the authors assert that such clinics not only serve an essential unmet need for legal services but also further the pedagogical goals of fostering disability consciousness and teaching skills that are applicable to many areas of social justice practice.

Keywords: clinical law, special needs education, learning disabilities, special education clinics

Suggested Citation

Massey, Patricia and Rosenbaum, Stephen A., Disability Matters: Toward a Law School Clinical Model for Serving Youth with Special Education Needs (April 1, 2005). Clinical Law Review, Vol. 11, pp. 271-334 (2005) , UC Berkeley Public Law Research Paper No. 2359799, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2359799

Patricia Massey

Legal Advocates for Children and Youth (LACY)

Stephen A. Rosenbaum (Contact Author)

University of California, Berkeley - School of Law ( email )

Berkeley, CA 94720-7200
United States

University of California, Berkeley - Othering & Belonging Institute (formerly Haas Institute for a Fair & Inclusive Society) ( email )

Berkeley, CA 94720
United States

University of Washington - Disability Studies Program ( email )

Seattle, WA 98195
United States

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