Disabled Ruling Should Force Funding Debate

It is a most profound tragedy when a healthy child becomes seriously and permanently disabled. Such misfortune befell Garret Frey of Cedar Rapids, Iowa, when at age 4, his spinal column was severed in a motorcycle accident. Garret was left paralyzed from the neck down; however, his mental capacities miraculously were unaffected. Garret today is enrolled in a regular public school but requires continuous medical care.

In what is certain to become known as a landmark decision, the United States Supreme Court ruled on March 3 that Garret's school district must pay for a nurse to care for his tracheotomy tube and catheter and perform other necessary medical services during the school day. This ruling provides legal precedent to the idea that school districts should be responsible for the medical needs of disabled students in addition to providing for their educational needs.

Although no one questions the severity of Garret's disability and his overwhelming medical needs, the Supreme Court has shifted the funding responsibility for these expensive medical services from private insurance companies and state health care agencies onto already overburdened public school districts. It is notable that two Supreme Court justices dissented from the majority decision, stating that the law for disabled children "was passed to increase the educational opportunities available to disabled children, not to provide medical care for them." It is conceivable that in Capistrano Unified School District alone, 10 additional school nurses will be needed to meet the new Supreme Court standard. Moreover, we anticipate a requirement for specialized medical technicians with training in unique medical procedures. Additional trained specialists also will be required to ride on school buses when medically fragile students are transported, and additional one-on-one specialized aides will need to be assigned to students whose medical needs so dictate. A cost estimate of these projected staff increases is in the $2-million range.

The original federal law providing educational rights and guarantees to disabled students occurred in the 1970s at a time when reform was necessary. Public law 94-142 opened the doors of public schools to thousands of disabled students who had been kept at home, usually in isolated conditions. Thanks to this federal legislation, disabled schoolchildren were provided specialized programs and services developed in accordance with their physical and medical capacities to learn.