Criteria for FAPE

The "free" public education means educational services must be provided at public expense, under public supervision and direction, and without charge to parents except for fees that are charged for all students. In Board of Education v. Rowley the United States Supreme Court set forth a two-part inquiry for determining whether a school district has satisfied the FAPE requirement. First, the state must have "complied with the procedures set forth in the Act." These procedures enable parents of a disabled child to examine school records, participate in meetings, and present complaints. Parents must also be given notice of any proposals to change the educational placement of a child, and they are entitled to an independent educational evaluation. They can initiate an impartial due process hearing for failure to comply with the Act and bring a subsequent civil action challenging an adverse determination at the hearing. Second, the IEP that is developed must be "reasonably calculated to enable the child to receive educational benefits." Therefore, if the child is being educated in the regular classrooms of the public education system the IEP must be designed to enable the child to achieve passing marks and advance from grade to grade.

Definition of an appropriate education
Some of the criteria specified in various sections of the IDEA statute includes requirements that schools provide each disabled student an education that:

    * is designed to meet the unique educational needs of that one student,
    * addresses both academic needs and functional needs,
    * provides “...access to the general curriculum to meet the challenging expectations established for all children” (that is, it meets the approximate grade-level standards of the state educational agency, to the extent that this is appropriate)
    * is provided in accordance with the Individualized Education Program (IEP) as defined in 1414(d), and
    * is reasonably calculated to enable the child to receive educational benefits.

The free appropriate public education proffered in an IEP need not be the best possible one, nor one that will maximize the child's educational potential; rather, it need only be an education that is specifically designed to meet the child's unique needs, supported by services that will permit him to benefit from the instruction. The IDEA guarantees only a basic floor of opportunity, consisting of specialized instruction and related services which are individually designed to provide educational benefit. Thus, Rowley says, the IDEA "cannot be read as imposing any particular substantive educational standard upon the States."

Definition of educational benefit
Since the statute is silent as to what constitutes educational benefit, the standard is defined federal regulations and by ongoing case law. Most courts to address the issue have found that in order to show a FAPE is being provided, the child must make some educational progress. A number of courts have struggled with the question of how much progress is sufficient, yet the standards are still somewhat vague.

In Board of Education v. Rowley, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that IDEA does not require states to develop IEPs that "maximize the potential of handicapped children." Another important ruling established by a case called Walczak v. Florida Union Free School District in 1998 asserts that children are not entitled to the best education that money can buy; they are only entitled to an appropriate education. Some courts have required that the progress the child receives be meaningful or more than de minimus.