Education: “The Degree Of Civilization In A Society Can Be Judged By Entering Its Prisons.” Fyodor Dostoyevsky.

In California, an individual with a disability who is between 18 and 22 years of age and has not yet earned a regular high school diploma is entitled to continue to receive special education and related services. The California Supreme Court posed and answered the question whether California Education Code section 56041, which provides generally that for qualifying pupils between the ages of 18 and 22 years, require the school district where the pupil’s parent resides to be responsible for providing special education and related services to a disabled individual who is incarcerated in a county jail?  The court’s answer was in the affirmative: “[T]he statutory language is broad enough to encompass special education programs for eligible county jail inmates between the ages of 18 and 22 years, and no other statute explicitly assigns responsibility for the provision of special education to such individuals. Applying the terms of section 56041 to assign responsibility in this setting is consistent with the purposes of the statute and the special education scheme as a whole, and does not create absurd or unworkable results.”(Los Angeles Unified School District v. Garcia  (Cal. Sup. Ct.; December 12, 2013) 58 Cal.4th 175.)