Sixth Circuit on Applied Behavioral Analysis and IDEA

On Thursday, the Sixth Circuit issued its opinion in Deal v. Hamilton County Board of Education. In this potentially quite significant case, the court held that the school district had violated IDEA 's procedural requirements by adopting a de facto policy of simply refusing to consider applied behavioral analysis (ABA) as an educational tool for kids with autism. And the court held that the school district might have been required to provide ABA as a substantive matter, notwithstanding Rowley, though it remanded to the ALJ for further consideration of that question.