Pennsylvania
Special Education Hearing Officer
DECISION
Child’s Name: N.R.
Date of Birth: [redacted]
Date of Hearing: June 3, 2015
CLOSED HEARING
ODR Case # 16318-1415AS
Parties to the Hearing: Parent[s]
Pine-Richland School District 702 Warrendale Road Gibsonia, PA 15044
Representative:
Pamela Berger, Esquire 434 Grace Street Pittsburgh, PA 15211
Patricia Andrews, Esquire Andrews & Price
1500 Ardmore Boulevard Suite 506
Pittsburgh, PA 15221
Date Record Closed: June 3, 2015
Date of Decision: June 18, 2015
Hearing Officer: Jake McElligott, Esquire
INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Student is a mid-teen aged student who has been identified as a student with health impairments (inattention and executive functioning) and specific learning disabilities. The student resides in the Pine- Richland School District (“District”).
The parties do not dispute that the student is a student with a disability under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Improvement Act of 2004 (“IDEA”)1. The parties’ dispute centers on summer programming for the summer of 2015. The positions of the parties are somewhat unique. The parents maintain that the District failed to offer an extended school year (“ESY”) program to the student, including not having data to gauge the student’s needs. The District maintains that the student does not qualify for an ESY program; notwithstanding this assertion, the District has offered summer tutoring to the student.
For the reasons set forth below, I find in favor of the District to the extent that the student does not qualify for an ESY program. Having offered some degree of summer tutoring, however, the District must stand by the offer it made to the parents and provide that programming.
ISSUES
Does the student qualify for an ESY program?
If so, what should the student’s ESY program look like?
If not, does the District otherwise have obligations to the student for summer programming?
N-R-Pine-Richland-ODRNo-16318-1415AS