Pennsylvania
Special Education Hearing Officer
DECISION
ODR No. 01524-1011 AS
Child’s Name: J.D.
Date of Birth: [redacted]
Dates of Hearing: 1/6/11, 2/11/11, 3/18/11, 3/25/11
CLOSED HEARING
Parties to the Hearing:
Parents Parent[s]
LEA
Montgomery County IU 23 EI Program 1605 West Main Street
Norristown, PA 19403
Representative:
Parent Attorney
Donald S. Litman, Esquire 200 Bucks Professional Center 347 New Street
Quakertown, PA 18951
LEA Attorney
Timothy Gilsbach, Esquire Fox, Rothschild, L.L.P.
10 Sentry Parkway, Suite 200 P.O. Box 3001
Blue Bell, PA 19422-3001
Date Record Closed: April 16, 2011
Date of Decision: May 1, 2011
Hearing Officer: Anne L. Carroll, Esq.
INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Parents in this case assert that the Intermediate Unit (IU) responsible for providing early intervention services to Student from September 2007 through September 2010 failed to meet that responsibility in a number of ways during the entire period of Student’s eligibility for IU services.
Parents seek redress for all of the alleged lapses in the IU’s services in the form of reimbursement for various evaluations and other out of pocket expenses, payment for services that the IU allegedly should have provided but refused, and compensatory education for the alleged insufficiencies and inadequacies in the services the IU did provide.
The record, however, compiled over four hearing sessions between the beginning of January and the end of March 2011, establishes that the IU sufficiently and appropriately met its early intervention obligations to Student under federal and state law. Parents’ claims, therefore, are denied.
ISSUES
- Did the Intermediate Unit timely and appropriately identify all of Student’s developmental early intervention needs?
- Did the Intermediate Unit provide Student with IEPs reasonably calculated to assure that Student would make meaningful progress?
- Did the Intermediate Unit provide sufficient services to appropriately meet Student’s developmental early intervention needs?
- Is the Intermediate Unit required to
- Reimburse Parents for tuition costs of the private preschool Student attended
- Reimburse Parents for other out of pocket expenses, including the costs of
private evaluations provided for Student and/or other services and therapies
- Provide payment to Parents for services at the [Redacted] Learning Center
and/or for other services and therapies?
- Are Parents entitled to an award of compensatory education and if so, for what period, in what amount and what form?