Brief of Appellant in C.W. V. Denver County School District, No. 19-14-07 (U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit)

Abstract

In Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools, 137 S. Ct. 743 (2017), the U.S. Supreme Court decided important questions concerning the administrative-exhaustion requirements of the federal special-education statute, the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). But Fry left open at least one important interpretive question, see id. at 752 n.4, and Fry’s new standards demand application in the lower courts. This brief, filed in C.W. v. Denver County Public School (No. 19-1407) — an appeal pending before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit — addresses Fry’s open question. It also addresses a wide range of issues concerning when a federal court may hear claims under the IDEA and other statutes, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act and the Rehabilitation Act, that protect children with disabilities. Given the brief’s breadth, it likely will provide guidance to others seeking to navigate the IDEA's administrative processes and the federal courts post-Fry. Notably, the first-line drafters of this brief were second- and third-year student-lawyers at Georgetown Law’s Appellate Courts Immersion Clinic: Ana Builes, Erin O’Neill, Grace Paras, Rachel Scholz-Bright, and Rachel Schwartz.