Pennsylvania
Special Education Hearing Officer
FINAL DECISION AND ORDER
Student’s Name: J.M.
Date of Birth: [redacted]
ODR Nos. 16307-1415KE & 16308-1415KE (consolidated)
CLOSED HEARING
Parties to the Hearing:
Parent[s]
Petitoner[s] in 16307 & 16308
Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School
910 North 6th Street
Philadelphia, PA 19123
Respondent in 16307
Pennsylvania Department of Education 333 Market Street, 9th Floor Harrisburg, PA 17126-033
Respondent in 16308
Representative:
Jennifer Y. Sang, Esq.
8 Penn Center
1628 John F. Kennedy Blvd. Suite 1000
Philadelphia, PA 19103
Unrepresented and Not Participating
M. Patricia Fullerton, Esq. Assistant Chief Counsel Office of Chief Counsel Department of Education 333 Market Street, 9th Floor Harrisburg, PA 17126-033
Dates of Hearing: 07/29/2015 & 08/06/2015
Record Closed: 09/11/2015
Date of Decision: 09/18/2015
Hearing Officer: Brian Jason Ford
Introduction
This special education due process hearing was requested by [the] Parent, who is the parent of Student, a student with disabilities. The Student attended the Walter D. Palmer Leadership Learning Partners Charter School (Charter) until it went defunct in December of 2014. In May of 2015, the Parent initiated these proceedings, alleging that the Charter violated both the Student’s and Parent’s rights while the Student attended the Charter. Both the Charter and the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) were named as respondents.1 Under these circumstances, the Parent demands that PDE remedy any violation that occurred while the Student attended the Charter.
As explained below, I find that the Charter violated the Student and Parent’s rights, and those violations must be remedied by an award of compensatory education. The parties have stipulated that PDE must supply any compensatory education awarded.
Issues
- Was the Student denied a free appropriate public education and, if so, what remedy is owed?
- Were the Parent’s rights under the IDEA violated and, if so, what remedy is owed?
- Is PDE responsible for providing whatever remedy is owed, if the Parent establishes a violation?2