This guidance, issued on October 21, 2014 by the Office for Civil Rights at the U.S. Department of Education, addresses the bullying of students with disabilities. The guidance is in the form of a letter to educators detailing public schools’ responsibilities under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act and Title II of Americans with Disabilities Act regarding the bullying of students with disabilities.
If a student with a disability is being bullied, federal law requires schools to take immediate and appropriate action to investigate the issue and, as necessary, take steps to stop the bullying and prevent it from recurring. The guidance provides an overview of the federal protections for students with disabilities in schools, then elaborates on the elements of a disability-based harrassment violation and a FAPE violation. It discusses how OCR generally analyzes complaints involving bullying of students with disabilities on each of these bases, then concludes with a series of hypothetical examples.
Description of the guidance, with links to other guidances on bullying and fact sheets in English and Spanish | | http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/bullying-students-disabilities-addressed-guidance-america%E2%80%99s-schools
Guidance (13 pages) | http://www2.ed.gov/about/offices/list/ocr/letters/colleague-bullying-201410.pdf