JG vs. Agora Cyber Charter School

INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

Student is a [teenaged] student who attends the Agora Cyber Charter School (“Charter School”). All parties agree that the student qualifies under the terms of the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Improvement Act of 2004 (“IDEA”)1 for specially designed instruction/related services for hearing impairment and speech and language impairment.

The dispute has an uncommon procedural background. In effect, the Charter School stands in a neutral position between the parents. While the Charter School explicitly stands by the appropriateness of the programming it has offered, and stands ready to continue that programming, the Charter School finds itself as mostly a bystander in a substantive dispute between the parents. Specifically, each parent favors a different educational placement for the student. The student’s father feels the student’s educational program should be delivered in a residential program at a school specializing in deaf education. The student’s mother feels the student should continue to be educated through the Charter School’s cyber programming.

For the reasons set forth below, I find that the student’s current educational placement should continue, namely that the student should continue to be educated through the Charter School’s cyber programming.