Excerpt from: Disability Law (click for full article)
But the majority concluded that "Stewart may nonetheless state a § 504 claim based on the District's alleged refusal to make reasonable accommodations for her disabilities." In so holding, the court put a helpful gloss on the "bad faith or gross misjudgment" standard that some circuits apply to Section 504 claims in the school context. The majority explained that "bad faith or gross misjudgment" is not a requirement for 504 claims in this context but is instead simply an "alternative way[] to plead the refusal to provide reasonable accommodations." In particular, the bad faith or gross misjudgment standard makes clear that a district has failed in its accommodation obligation not only when it explicitly refuses a requested accommodation but also "when it fails to exercise professional judgment in response to changing circumstances or new information, even if the district has already provided an accommodation based on an initial exercise of such judgment." The majority explained that a plaintiff can establish a violation of the reasonable accommodation requirement -- including under the bad faith or gross misjudgment standard -- without showing that the defendant school district's actions rose to the level of the deliberate indifference that is required to make a district liable for student-on-student harassment.
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