Free Appropriate Public Education for Students with Handicaps: Requirements under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

Overview & Synopsis

This pamphlet examines free appropriate public education (FAPE) requirements of Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 by focusing on three questions: (1) who is entitled to a free appropriate public education?; (2) how is an appropriate education defined?; and (3) how is a free education defined?. In general, all school-age children who have handicaps are entitled to FAPE. Characteristics of an appropriate education include educational services to meet individual needs, education with nonhandicapped students, nondiscriminatory evaluation and placement, and provision of due process procedures for the review of evaluation and placement decisions. Financial responsibilities of the school district include either providing an appropriate educational program or placing the student in an appropriate private program. FAPE provisions of the Education of the Handicapped Act are also briefly reviewed. (DB)