Pennsylvania
Special Education Hearing Officer
DECISION
Child’s Name: RC
Date of Birth: xx/xx/xx
Date of Hearing: August 1, 2007
CLOSED HEARING
ODR #7866/ 07-08 AS
Parties to the Hearing:
Mr. and Mrs. 4140 Tollgate Road New Hope, PA 18938
Central Bucks School District Esquire 16 Welden Drive Doylestown, PA 18901
Representative: Pro Se
Joanne D. Sommer, Eastburn and Gray, P.C. 60 East Court Street P.O. Box 1389 Doylestown, PA 18901-0137
Date Record Closed: August 6, 2007
Date of Decision: August 16, 2007
Hearing Officer: William F. Culleton, Jr., Esquire
INTRODUCTION
Student is a xx year old eligible resident of the Central Bucks School District (District). (NT 16-15 to 23, 17-10 to 18.) He is identified for educational purposes as exceptional in the areas of autism and specific learning disability in written expression. (NT 17-2 to 5, 17-10 to 18.) Mr. and Ms. , the Student’s Parents, requested due process to determine whether or not the District had properly declined to provide Extended School Year services to the Student.
The Parents asserted that the Student is in the Department of Education’s target group for ESY, which includes students with autism, that he had exhibited regression in life skills while at home in the summer, and that two medical service providers had recommended ESY for the Student. The District challenged the hearing officer’s jurisdiction on several grounds; it also asserted that the District had no obligation to provide services because of the Student’s removal to private school, and that the Parents had obstructed evaluation for ESY purposes until it was too late to provide them.
ISSUES
- Does the hearing officer have jurisdiction to determine whether the District appropriately denied ESY services for the 2004-2005 school year?
- Does the hearing officer have jurisdiction to determine whether the District appropriately denied ESY services for the 2005-2006 school year?
- Does the hearing officer have jurisdiction to determine whether the District appropriately denied ESY services for the 2006-2007 school year?
- Did the District properly find that the Student was not entitled to ESY services in the summer after his 2006-2007 school year?1