Union School District v. Smith’s Empirical Analysis
15 F.3d 1519 · 1994
Citation profile
60 federal appellate · 41 district · 10 state decisions
How this case has been cited
Cited by 177 later decisions — most recently January 2023 · most notably Capistrano Unified School District v. Wartenberg ex rel. Wartenberg (1995), Seattle School District, No. 1 v. B.S. (1996)
60 federal appellate · 41 district · 10 state decisions
Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.
Relationships
Applies 20 U.S.C. § 1400 (Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975) · 20 U.S.C. § 1401 · 20 U.S.C. § 1415
Relies on Board of Education of Hendrick Hudson Central School District Bd of Ed Westchester County v. Rowley · Missouri v. Continential Insurance Cos. · School Committee of the Town of Burlington v. Department of Education · Florence County School District Four v. Carter Ex Rel. Carter · Spillane v. Spillane
Most-quoted passages
The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 177 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.
“a school district cannot escape its obligation under the IDEA to offer formally an appropriate educational placement by arguing that a disabled child's parents expressed unwillingness to accept that placement. The IDEA explicitly requires written prior notice to parents when an educational agency proposes, or refuses, to initiate or change the educational placement of a disabled child.”
6 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority““An ‘appropriate’ public education does not mean the absolutely best or ‘potential-maximizing’ education for the individual child. . . . The states are obliged to provide ‘a basic floor of opportunity’ through a program ‘individually designed to provide educational benefit to the handicapped child.’ ””
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority“rigorous procedural requirements of IDEA.”
3 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
How this case has been treated — in progress
Whether each later court followed, distinguished, criticized, or overruled this decision. The treatment classification (task #35) runs highest-cited cases first and lights up here as it reaches this one.