Pennsylvania
Special Education Hearing Officer
DECISION
Child’s Name: D.V.
Date of Birth: [redacted]
Dates of Hearing:
May 10, 2011 June 15, 2011 July 12, 2011
CLOSED HEARING
ODR Case # 1547-10-11-AS
Parties to the Hearing:
Parent[s]
Blue Mountain School District 685 Red Dale Road
P.O. Box 188
Orwigsburg, PA 17961
Representative:
Vivian Narehood, Esq. Gibbel, Kraybill & Hess 41 East Orange Street Lancaster, PA 17602
Mark Walz, Esq.
Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams 331 East Butler Avenue
P.O. Box 5069
New Britain, PA 18901
Date Record Closed: August 1, 2011
Date of Decision: August 23, 2011
Hearing Officer: Jake McElligott, Esquire
INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Student is an elementary-school aged student residing in the Blue Mountain School District (“District”) who is a student with a disability under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Improvement Act of 2004 (“IDEIA”)1. Specifically, the student is identified with specific learning disabilities. The parents have requested compensatory education and tuition reimbursement of a privately funded education placement due to an alleged failure by the District to provide a free appropriate public education (”FAPE”). Particularly, parents claim that compensatory education is owed for alleged denials of FAPE beginning in January 2010 through the first half of the 2010-2011 school year. Additionally, parents claim that reimbursement is owed for a private placement undertaken in January 2011. The District maintains that the programming offered to the student in those school years was reasonably calculated to yield meaningful education benefit, and, as implemented, did so, thereby providing FAPE to the student.
For the reasons set forth below, I find in favor of the parents.
ISSUES
Was the student denied a FAPE from January 2010 through the first half of the 2010-2011 school year?
If so, is compensatory education owed as a result?
Was the educational program proposed by the District in December 2010 appropriate?
If not, are parents entitled to tuition reimbursement for the unilateral private placement undertaken for the second half of the 2010-2011 school year?
D-V-Blue-Mountain-ODRNo-1547-10-11-AS