A unanimous Supreme Court strengthened the rights of nearly 7 million schoolchildren with disabilities Wednesday and did so by rejecting a lower standard set by Judge Neil M. Gorsuch. The ruling, one of the most important of this term, came as President Trump’s Supreme Court nominee is wrapping up his third day of testimony before a Senate committee. Children like Endrew F. have a right to an “educational program that is reasonably calculated to enable [them] to make progress,” he said. Under that standard, a school need show only that it was providing a minimal special program with some level of benefit. Asked about the issue on Wednesday, Gorsuch said he was a part of a unanimous three-judge panel that had sought to follow a Supreme Court standard set in 1982.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 22, 2017 18:15 UTC