Pennsylvania
Special Education Hearing Officer
DECISION
Child’s Name: JE
Date of Birth: xx/xx/xxxx
ODR No. 00101-0910 LS
CLOSED HEARING
Parties to the Hearing:
Boyertown Area School District 120 North Monroe Street Boyertown, PA 19512
Representative:
Frederick M. Stanczak, Esquire 179 North Broad Street Doylestown, PA 18901
Jennifer Donaldson, Esquire Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams 331 East Butler Avenue
P.O. Box 5069
New Britain, PA 18901
Date of Ruling: April 1, 2010
Hearing Officer: William F. Culleton, Jr., Esquire
INTRODUCTION
(Student) is a seventeen year old eligible resident of the Boyertown Area School District (District); he is in tenth grade at the [Redacted School] in [Redacted city] Pennsylvania. (NT 20-6 to 16, 506-8 to 13, 515-16 to 18.) [REDACTED SCHOOL] is a private school that provides college preparatory education to students with learning differences. (NT 507-24 to 508-13.) The Student is identified with Autism.
In July 2009, the District offered the Student an IEP with part time inclusion and part time placement in its own autistic support class at Boyertown Area Senior High School (BASH). (NT 21-12 to 14; S-19 pp. 54 to 56.) The Parents requested due process on July 27, 2009, amending their complaint on September 2, 2009. (P-14.) They asserted that the District’s offered program and placement were inappropriate and that the IEP planning process was inappropriate because the District refused to conduct the IEP meeting at [REDACTED SCHOOL] so that the Student and his teachers could participate. Ibid. They requested tuition reimbursement for the 2009-2010 school year. Ibid. They also requested an order that the District was liable to pay for tuition and transportation during the pendency of this matter.
The District asserted that its July 2009 offered program and placement, as revised in an IEP offered in August 2009, was appropriate. They requested that tuition reimbursement be denied for that reason and based upon equitable considerations. (P-14 pp. 277 to 281.) They also challenged certain statutory claims.1 They requested an order that pendency does not apply and that the Parents should reimburse the District for tuition and travel costs for the 2009-2010 school year.
ISSUES
- Did the District make a free appropriate public education available to the student in a timely manner for the 2009-2010 school year?
- Is the [REDACTED SCHOOL] an appropriate placement for the Student for the 2009-2010 school year?
- Should the hearing officer order the District to pay the cost of tuition and transportation of the Student to [REDACTED SCHOOL] for the 2009-2010 school year?