IN THE PENNSYLVANIA OFFICE FOR DISPUTE RESOLUTION
Final Decision and Order1
ODR File No. 2603-1112AS
CLOSED HEARING
Child’s Name:2
Date of Birth: [redacted]
Parties to the Hearing [Parent]
York City School District 31 N. Pershing Avenue York, PA 17401
Representative
Pro se
Christopher J. Conrad, Esquire Marshall, Dennehey, Warner, Coleman
& Goggin, P.C.
4200 Crums Mill Road, Suite B Harrisburg, PA 17112
Record Closed: December 19, 2011
Date of Decision: December 19, 2011
Hearing Officer: Brian Jason Ford
SUFFICIENCY DETERMINATION AND DISMISSAL
English is not the Parent’s native language. The Parent is fluent and conversational in English and can read English, but does not understand formal writing. The Parent and I have spoken on the phone, and the Parent has asked me to write the way that I speak and to use small words. I will try to honor that request. Some legal terms must be used, but I explain them.3
If the Parent does not understand this decision, the Parent should call the Special Education Consult Line at 1-800-879-2301.
I am granting the York City School District’s (York) Sufficiency Challenge and Motion to Dismiss and am dismissing the Parent’s complaint. This means that I will not hear the Parent’s case. The Parent can appeal this decision to court. This means that the Parent can ask a judge to look at this decision and see if I made a mistake. I am sending documents to the Parent along with this decision that explain how to appeal it.
The Complaint and the Sufficiency Challenge
In Pennsylvania, there is a form that people can use to request a due process hearing.10 The Parent used that form to request a hearing. ODR received the form on November 30, 2011. On the form, the Parent wrote that the Student goes to school in [another school district]11, and lives in [a town in that other school district].12 There is a second parent not residing with the Student who lives in York.13
A section of the form allows the Parent to say what the nature of the problem and proposed resolution are. The Parent wrote the following in that section:
“I want to move back to my house, in York but I can’t due to my [child’s] school where [my child] would be atending. I moved from my house because of [my child’s] school [my child] was being abused from [the] 14 teacher, students, and was failing. Now [my child] is doing wrilly good.”
York filed a Sufficiency Challenge on December 14, 2011. In the Sufficiency Challenge, York asks me to dismiss the complaint, meaning that I should not hear the Parent’s case and York should not have to defend itself. York says that the Student does not live inside of York, and so York does not have to educate the Student.15 York also says that the Complaint is not sufficient because the Parent does not say what special education law was broken or how, and does not propose a resolution.
Student-York-City-ODRNo-2603-1112AS