Student and parent fall short of proving Child Find, FAPE violations in IDEA case
Docket Number: 0000000 , Decision Date: September 28, 2022
Attachment: Click here to download the decision.
This complaint brought under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) concerns a 10th-grade student with diagnoses of ADHD, depression, and oppositional defiant disorder. The Court ultimately rejected all claims raised by the student and parent. The Judge determined the student had not been denied a free appropriate public education (FAPE) solely because he was reading below grade level, as he was still advancing grades and was meeting his IEP goals. The Judge also concluded that (i) the school district had not failed to identify other disabilities such as a speech impediment; rather, the district properly relied on the student’s psychological evaluations; (ii) the district adequately addressed the student’s behavioral issues; and (iii) while the student’s education plan and test results had various errors, none of these errors led to a substantive failure of educational services.