Judd Gregg: “Through all this IDEA litigation, the school district has never been able to collect its attorney's fees in defending…”

“Through all this IDEA litigation, the school district has never been able to collect its attorney's fees in defending any of these cases. And because there is no disincentive or negative consequences of filing complaint after complaint, making call after call, flooding the district with thousands of pages of documents, Mrs. X has continued her actions against the district. Now, we know that this example is the rare exception--however, we need to do something to help protect schools against frivolous, egregious behavior, which drains resources away from providing special education and related services to children with disabilities. The District writes: The purpose of IDEA is to protect the interests of special education students. It would be in this interest to guard against the egregious and vexatious behavior of a very small minority of parents whose actions negatively impact the ability of a school district to provide service to all special education students. Mr. President, that is exactly what this amendment is designed to do.”