Pennsylvania
Special Education Hearing Officer
DECISION
Child’s Name: J.D.
Date of Birth: [redacted]
ODR No. 00417-0910 KE
CLOSED HEARING
Parties to the Hearing: Parent[s]
Downingtown Area School District 126 Wallace Avenue Downingtown, PA 19335-2643
Representative:
Michael J. Connolly, Esquire Connolly, Jacobson & John, LLP 188 North Main Street Doylestown, PA 18901
Anne E. Hendricks, Esquire Levin Legal Group, P.C.
1301 Mason’s Mill Business Park 1800 Byberry Road
Huntingdon Valley, Pa 19006
Record Closed: December 6, 2010
Date of Decision: December 20, 2010
Hearing Officer: William F. Culleton, Jr., Esquire
INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Student is a [beyond teenaged] student, who at all relevant times resided within the Downingtown Area School District (District)1. (NT 11-1 to 13-10; HO 1.) The Student is identified with Autism and Mental Retardation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. §1401 et seq. (IDEA). (NT Vol. I, 13-5 to 10.) Parents request due process, requesting compensatory education due to an alleged denial of a free appropriate public education (FAPE) from October 29, 2007 until the Student was placed in an approved private school on February 23, 2009. The District asserts that it provided appropriate services at all relevant times.
On the District’s motion, I confined the scope of the hearing to claims arising on October 29, 2007 (two years before the date on which the original Complaint Notice was filed). (NT Vol. I2, 26-2 to 21; HO 2 to 5.)3 The entire matter was heard in four sessions and the record closed on December 6, 2010, upon receipt of written summations.
ISSUES
1. Did the District inappropriately fail to evaluate all of the Student’s educational needs during the relevant period from October 29, 2007 to February 23, 2009?
J-D-Downingtown-Area-ODRNo-00417-0910-KE