A Kentucky judge has rejected a father’s claim that his son’s private school was negligent for failing to recognize and treat the boy’s learning disability.
Jefferson Circuit Court Judge Laurence E. Higgins ruled last month that charges of “educational malpractice” against the Kentucky Country Day School of Louisville were not provable because there is no “standard of care” for measuring an educator’s conduct.
To establish a precedent for malpractice claims would unleash a “flood of litigation” against schools, he said, and force the courts to interfere in day-to-day school operations.
The lawsuit was brought last fall by Arnold Rich on behalf of his son John, who suffers from attention-deficit disorder--a learning disability characterized by an inability to concentrate. The youth attended the school from 1978 to 1987. (See Education Week, Nov. 16, 1988.)
A lawyer for the family said Mr. Rich would appeal the judge’s decision.
