Where Education Law, Public Health, and Environmental Racism Collide: A Roadmap for an Educational Response to Environmental Crises

This course will cover the intersection between education law, public health, and environmental racism. Using Flint, Michigan as a case study, it will explore how special education law can be utilized to bring impact litigation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to vindicate the rights of children who have been subject to community-wide environmental catastrophes, as well as children who attend schools that are systemically underfunded and under-resourced.  

The course will be taught by Lindsay M. Heck, an associate at global law firm White & Case LLP who spearheaded a groundbreaking class action representing the 30,000 children in Flint, Michigan poisoned by lead in the water during the infamous water crisis. Lindsay has appeared on MSNBC to discuss how the precedent-setting case can be used as a model in other cities across the country that have been impacted by lead or similar environmental toxins.

This program will benefit any attorneys interested in exploring innovative strategies for using litigation to address environmental crises.  

Learning Objectives:

1. Identify strategies to overcome the exhaustion requirement under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in order to bring class-action lawsuits

2. Explore how the Child Find Mandate of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act can be harnessed to provide state-of-the-art neuropsychological testing

3. Discuss how testing can be translated into effective Individualized Education Programs and Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports