Such exciting news today! In Forest Grove School District v. T. A., the Supreme Court ruled 6 – 3 in favor of the parents, saying that it would be “irrational” for a school district to deny an IEP for a child who needs one. They further wrote that “when a child requires special education services, a school district’s failure to propose an IEP of any kind is at least as serious a violation of it’s responsibilities under IDEA as a failure to provide an adequate IEP.”
This is an exciting win for kids and families (and no doubt school districts will be quite unhappy with it). This case was about whether the parents of a child who was denied an IEP by the school could get reimbursement for placing him in a private school. It reminds me of an advocacy case I worked on some years ago (before it went legal as the school district refused to provide appropriate services for a 3 year old child with autism and other complications). The first stab by the school district attorneys (before it eventually settled) insisted that since he had not had an IEP that they should not be liable for a private program. How nice that lerhaps we will move beyond that now and children might not need to fail in school as a criteria for an appropriate placement (FAPE).
Parents: Remember that should you consider a private placement for your child, that there are strict hoops that you must jump through if you would ever hope to be eligible for reimbursement from a school district. Be sure to talk to an advocate and/or an attorney before jumping into this.
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I have been looking looking around for this kind of information. Will you post some more in future? I’ll be grateful if you will.
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