Pennsylvania
Special Education Hearing Officer
DECISION
Child’s Name: Student
Date of Birth: xx/xx/xx
Date of Hearing: September 1, 2009
OPEN HEARING
ODR Case # 00026-09-10-KE
Parties to the Hearing:
Freeport Area School District P.O. Box C
Freeport, PA 16229
Representative: Pro Se
John Vogel, Esq. Tucker Arensberg 1500 One PPG Place Pittsburgh, PA 15222
Date Record Closed: September 21, 2009
Date of Decision: October 6, 2009
Hearing Officer: Jake McElligott, Esquire
INTRODUCTION AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Student (“student”) is a teen-aged student with autism residing in the Freeport Area School District (“District”) who, parents claim, was not provided, in the summer of 2009, with an appropriate extended school year (“ESY”) program as a student with a disability under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Improvement Act of 2004 (“IDEIA”)1. As a result, parents allege that they were forced to provide an appropriate ESY program at their own expense and seek reimbursement for that program. The District maintains that it offered an appropriate ESY program to the student and, as such, has complied with its duties under federal and Pennsylvania law to offer the student a free appropriate public education (“FAPE”).
ISSUES
Did the District offer an appropriate ESY program to the student for the summer of 2009?
If not, are parents entitled to reimbursement for the privately funded ESY program and, if so, in what amount?
Student-Freeport-Area-School-ODRNo-00026-09-10-KE-