Pennsylvania
Special Education Hearing Officer
DECISION
Child’s Name: LC
Date of Birth: xx/xx/xx
Dates of Hearing:
February 25, 2008, March 12, 2008, April 7, 2008
CLOSED HEARING
ODR #7783/06-07 AS
Parties to the Hearing: Ms.
North Penn School District 401 East Hancock Street Lansdale, PA 19446-3961
Representative:
Robert B. Gidding, Esquire 2 Bala Plaza, Suite 300 Bala Cynwyd, PA 19004
Jane M. Williams, Esquire Sweet, Stevens, Katz & Williams 331 East Butler Avenue
P.O. Box 5069
New Britain, PA 18901
Date Record Closed: April 23, 2008
Date of Decision: May 8, 2008
Hearing Officer: William F. Culleton, Jr., Esquire
INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Student is a xx year old resident of the North Penn School District (District). (NT 13; S-5, S-6, S-7.) The Student is identified with emotional disturbance and specific learning disability. (NT 13.) The Parent requested due process to determine the appropriateness of the Student’s placement and program from January 3, 2007 to the last day of school in 2007. The Parent asserted that the placement in a learning support classroom was not reasonably calculated to provide the Student with adequate support for her emotional disturbance, and that the IEP offered to the Parent in January 2007, as amended in February 2007, (S-7, S-9), was inadequate. The District asserted that it had offered an adequate program and placement based upon the information available to it at the time.
The Student was placed in a residential mental health program and attended a public school program out of the District until December 2006. (NT 168- 169.) The Student re-registered in the District on January 2, 2007. (S-6.) On January 10, 2007, the District offered to place the Student in a full time learning support class in its [redacted] High School (High School). (S-6, S-7, S-8.) In June 2007, the Parent, through counsel, requested due process. (S-22.) The hearing took place in three sessions, from February 25, 2008 until April 7, 2008. By request of the Parents’ counsel, the parties submitted written summations, and the record closed upon receipt of the summations on April 23, 2008.
ISSUES
1. For the period January 10, 2007 to the end of the 2006-2007 school year, did the District offer an appropriate program and placement in light of the Student’s serious emotional disturbance?
2. Should the hearing officer award compensatory education for the period January 10, 2007 to the end of the 2006-2007 school year?
LC-North-Penn-School-ODRNo-7783-06-07-AS