Teacher’s Long-term abuse denied student FAPE resulting in 5 years of compensatory services

In Fulton County School District, 112 LRP 1885 (SEA GA 02/01/12) an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ)ruled that a Georgia school district denied a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to a student with a disability because the district failed to stop a teacher’s known, prolonged abuse of the student when he was in middle school and [...]

Texas School District Required to Provide Bus Monitors with Training Specific to Student’s Behaviors

 A state hearing officer ruled in Corpus Christi Independent School District, 57 IDELR 297 (Tex. SEA 2011) that the school district failed to provide appropriate personnel support so that a  student with an emotional disturbance and ADHD could be safely transported on the bus. The student had been suspended from the bus more than ten times during the 2010-2011 school year for [...]

OSEP Letter Reinforces that Services are Based on Student’s Individual Needs

As we know, special education services for children with disabilities are provided to meet the individual needs of the particular student with a disability. Still, it is good to see the Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), confirm that point to a state director of special education in Letter to Koscielniak, 112 LRP 9475 (OSEP [...]

Florida Department of Education Required to Pay for Maintaining Specific Unique Assistive Technology Needed for Student to Take State Exams

In Seminole County (FL) School District, 58 IDELR 113 (OCR 2011), the parents of a 5th grade student with cerebral palsy and a visual impairment complained to the Office for Civil Rights (OCR) that the Florida Department of Education failed to provide their daughter with a screen- reading device as an accommodation during a state exam. The [...]

Colorado District’s Failure to Evaluate Student While Implementing RTI Violated 504

In Harrison (CO) School District Two, 57 IDELR 295 (OCR 2011),  the Office for Civil Rights determined that implementing RTI strategies did not offset the school district’s failure to timely evaluate and reevaluate a student with ADHD. The student’s mother enrolled the student in the district for the 2008-09 school year and made it clear the [...]

OSEP Letter says school districts may set timelines for parents to submit IEE reports before scheduling an IEP meeting

In Letter to Addressee 111 LRP 68370 (OSEP 2011), the Office of Special Education Programs has stated that school districts, as part of their Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) criteria, may require that parents provide the complete independent evaluation report by a certain time, even before setting the date for the IEP team meeting. The OSEP was [...]

Illinois School District Should Have Addressed Student’s Auditory Processing and Assistive Technology Needs

 In City of Chicago School District 299, 57 IDELR 29, (SEA  Il 2011) an 8th Grade boy  with specific learning disabilities exhibited problems with reading, writing, listening, and integrating sensory information. In fact, he had exhibited some of these problems as early as 1st Grade. Unfortunately, despite repeated red flags that the student needed additional support, the [...]

Senator Harkin Introduces Keeping All Students Safe Act

     Last Friday December 16 2011, Senator Tom Harkin (D. Iowa) introduced the Keeping All Students Safe Act . Similar legislation was introduced last year and passed the House of Representatives, but did not pass the Senate. The purpose of the bill is to: (1) promote the development of effective intervention and prevention practices that do not use [...]

OSEP Spanish Glossary Now Available

The Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has published a Spanish Glossary with over 250 IDEA related terms in Spanish. The OSEP Spanish Glossary was developed to ensure that educational terms related to the implementation of the IDEA used in documents to promote parents’ participation are translated in a uniform and comprehensive way, across states, geographical regions [...]

U.S. Department of Education Issues Part C Regulations

     Today, the Department of Education (the Department) issued the final regulations for the early intervention program under Part C of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Part C serves infants and toddlers from birth through age two with developmental delays or who have diagnosed physical or mental conditions with high probabilities of resulting in developmental [...]