The Supreme Court, Endrew, and the Appropriate Education of Students With Disabilities

In this article, we analyze the Supreme Court’s decision in Endrew F. v. Douglas County School District RE-1 (2017), interpreting the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and its provisions creating a right of every student with a disability to have an appropriate education. We compare the Endrew decision with IDEA and the Court’s previous appropriate education decision, Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley (1982), on four key concepts: educational program, reasonably calculated, progress, and child’s circumstances. We discuss the case’s implications for systems capacity development and interpret Endrew as a narrative about students’ ethical claim to dignity.

Contradictory coroners? Decision-making in death investigations

AimNational coroner data demonstrate differences in the rates at which coroners across England and Wales choose to investigate reported deaths and the frequency by which they record certain conclusions. This study sought to examine how decisions are made by coroners and whether they differed when faced with identical case information.MethodsThree different clinical scenarios were circulated via a web link to all senior coroners. The case information was contained within a ‘Decision Board’ displayed on screen. Each scenario had nine consistent categories of information, such as the cause of death and the medical history. Participants were asked to indicate an inquest conclusion (verdict) using free text and to provide comments. The way in which participants accessed the case information (order, frequency, etc) was recorded by the computer software.Results35 coroners responded. There was little consensus as to conclusion with scenarios 1 and 2 generating four different outcomes and scenario 3 generating an extraordinary eight different conclusions among respondents. Despite coming to widely different conclusions, coroners demonstrated very similar decision-making processes. Conclusions were robustly defended yet proffered alternatives were plentiful. The comments made indicated a difference in the personal attitudes of coroners towards case information.ConclusionsDifferent coroners faced with identical case information arrived at widely different case outcomes ranging from no further investigation to finding numerous alternative verdicts. Disparity appeared to be a product of differing personal attitudes among coroners. National coroner consensus to achieve a shared inference from available evidence is urgently needed.

BOARD COMPOSITION, OWNERSHIP STRUCTURE AND DIVIDEND POLICY IN PAKISTAN

The aim of this study was to examine the impact of board composition and ownership structure on dividend policy of the firms listed in Karachi stock exchange. For this purpose, the data of 150 non-financial firms from 2008 to 2012 was employed. This study used descriptive as well as fixed effect and logit models for the estimation purpose. Results showed that CEO Duality and ownership concentration have an insignificant impact on dividend policy. Profitability measures and institutional ownership showed a positive significant impact on both dividend payout ratio and dividend decision. Board independence showed a significant positive impact on dividend payout ratio; however, it remained insignificant in case of dividend decisions.