Pennsylvania
Special Education Hearing Officer
DECISION
Child’s Name: DO
Date of Birth: XX/XX/XX
Date of Hearing: 11/05/08
CLOSED HEARING
ODR No. 9100/08-09 AS
Parties to the Hearing:
Parents Mr. & Mrs.
School District
Central Bucks
16 Welden Drive Doylestown, PA 18901
Representative:
Parent Attorney: None
School District Attorney Scott Wolpert, Esq. Timoney Knox, LLP 400 Maryland Drive P.O. Box 7544
Fort Washington, PA 19034
Date Record Closed: Nov. 10, 2008
Date of Decision: Nov. 24, 2008 2
Hearing Officer: Anne L. Carroll, Esq.
INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
This case and a companion case which concerns the same Student and the same School District were commenced by School District due process complaints. In the first case, 9100/08-09 AS, the District sought a due process hearing to support the appropriateness of its reevaluation report in response to Parents’ request for an independent educational evaluation (IEE). In the second case, 9129/08-09 AS, the District sought a hearing officer determination that the IEP it offered Student for the 2008/2009 school year is appropriate.
Parents opposed holding a hearing with respect to both cases, contending, first that the District had no right to file due process complaints concerning the matters in dispute. After e-mail correspondence notifying Parents that a consolidated hearing would take place on the District complaints, Parents requested a continuance to obtain counsel, which was granted. During the following 30 day period, Parents notified the District and the hearing officer that they were withdrawing their request for an IEE and also withdrawing the Student from the District for home schooling. When the District indicated that it would not withdraw its due process complaints notwithstanding the change in circumstances, the parties and counsel were notified that the consolidated hearing session would take place via telephone conference call in order to make a record of the facts, and that for reasons stated briefly in further e-mail correspondence, the District’s complaints would be dismissed, assuming that the facts adduced at the hearing confirmed the e-mail correspondence.
ISSUE
Should the Central Bucks School District’s due process complaint concerning the appropriateness of the reevaluation of Student completed in March 2008 be dismissed in light of the Parents’ withdrawal of their request for an IEE and withdrawal of Student from the District?
DO-Central-Bucks-ODRNo-9100-08-09-AS