Pete says, "I Challenge You To Find . . . "

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Charles wrote:

We are seeking compensatory education for various violations of IDEA and were disappointed that there is no entry for "compensatory" education and services in the index of your new book.

We hear that in Baltimore home computers and extended school day (also not listed) are often used to compensate students whose rights have been violated.

Hope to see an extensive discussion of this in the SPED Advocate.

Pete responded:

I challenge you to find "compensatory education" in the statute. I also challenge you to find "inclusion" in the statute. Both words are commonly used in special ed litigation – and neither are in the statute.

Actually, the concept of compensatory education is related to "equitable" relief that a Court can award as discussed in Section 1415.

The concepts of compensatory, extended school day, inclusion, etc, are all words that have been used by judges in case law decisions.

Later, we may develop a caselaw book that would include landmark cases below the U.S. Supreme Court level which is where you will find more information.

You will learn that what is black is white in one jurisdiction, and what is white is black in a second. The third jurisdiction will say that both are wrong - it is gray. You will not find a clear case law definition of these terms that you can hang your hat on.

To understand these terms, you need to do a comprehensive search of all cases in the Fourth Circuit (if you live in Maryland, you are in the Fourth Circuit), then a search of Maryland Federal District Court opinions, Maryland state court decisions, then Maryland State level review decisions before you will have a clear understanding about how this term is defined in Maryland.

This is the nature of law and legal research, while also understanding that the answer to your question may change tomorrow.

Re: how to find cases that mention compensatory education, you may want to use the search engine on our site. I just typed in the word "compensatory" and found about 25 files / articles / cases that contain the word "compensatory." This should help.

To do a broader search, go to the U.S. Court of Appeals cases on FindLaw. Search using terms like "compensatory" and "IEP"