Special Education/504
Third Circuit Clarifies Law on Independent Evaluation Requests & Need for Disagreement with District Eval
Occasionally, school district child study teams (“CSTs”) are faced with special education parents who are resistant to allowing the CST to evaluate their child, yet demand independent evaluations from an outside evaluator at the school district’s expense. In such circumstances, districts were often faced with a dilemma – either acquiesce to such demands, or file for due process themselves and incur legal fees to resist such requests, or deny the parent’s request without filing for due process and risk an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) finding that the district committed a procedural violation. This is because previous decisions of the Office […]
OSEP Clarifies: Parental Consent Not Required to Conduct Post-Secondary Transition Assessments if Child Study Team not Reevaluating
By: Cameron R. Morgan, Esq. and Nicole Crincoli, Law Clerk The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) requires informed parental consent to be provided prior to a child study team performing any number of different actions in the course of the special education process. Whether a school district needs to obtain written parental consent prior to administering postsecondary transition assessments had been a question of some debate. In a recent guidance letter from the Office of Special Education Programs (“OSEP”), Letter to Olex, 119 L.R.P. 8445, 74 I.D.E.L.R. 22 (Feb. 22, 2019), OSEP indicated that individualized education program (“IEP”) teams generally […]
Special Education Settlement Subject to 6-Year Statute of Limitations
When boards of education resolve disputes with parents of special education students, they often enter into settlement agreements with the parents which are approved by an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) of the New Jersey Office of Administrative Law (“OAL”). On February 27, 2019, the New Jersey Appellate Division in L.A. v. South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education issued a decision affirming that parties to a settlement agreement approved by the OAL are subject to a six-year statute of limitations to enforce that agreement. In 2000, the parent of a special education student initiated litigation against the South Orange-Maplewood Board of Education (“Board”) seeking reimbursement […]
District Court Denies Parents’ Request for IEE
Parents of special education students have the right to request an independent educational evaluation (“IEE”) at the expense of the school district if they disagree with any assessment conducted as part of an initial evaluation or a reevaluation conducted by the school district. However, that right is not unfettered. On January 31, 2019, the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey in S.S. and M.S., o/b/o H.S. v. Hillsborough Township Public School District overturned an Administrative Law Judge’s decision and determined (1) parents are only entitled to an IEE at the district’s expense when they disagree with an evaluation or reevaluation […]
Parents Not Entitled to IEE at Public Expense Due to Minor Flaws in Reevaluation
In the realm of New Jersey special education, it is not a rare occurrence for parents to request an independent educational evaluation (“IEE”) of a special education student at public expense in response to an evaluation of the student conducted by the child study team. Each year, New Jersey school districts are faced with hundreds of requests for IEEs at public expense. The vast majority of these are granted voluntarily by the district, sometimes on the basis of a cost-benefit assessment that has little to do with whether the evaluation was appropriately conducted or whether the IEE will shed any […]
Attorney’s Fees Relevant to Ten-Day Offers in IDEA Cases
A major concern for school districts in special education cases is the potential for parents to recover attorney’s fees if they are considered prevailing parties under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”). School districts may limit exposure by extending a “ten-day offer” in which it makes an offer of settlement to the parents at least ten days before an administrative due process hearing. If the parent rejects the ten-day offer, the parent may only recover attorney’s fees for work done after the time of the offer if (1) the hearing leads to more favorable relief than the offer included, […]
ALJ Grants IEE Due to District’s Failure to File for Due Process
The New Jersey regulations under N.J.A.C. 6A:14-2.5(c) address the rights of a parent of a special education student to an independent educational evaluation (“IEE”) at the school district’s expense. A decision issued by a New Jersey Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”) on January 9, 2018 in S.S. and M.S. o/b/o H.S. v. Hillsborough Township Public School District highlights the importance of complying with procedural requirements if a school district wishes to deny a parent’s request for an IEE. On June 6, 2017, the parents in this case requested an IEE performed at the Hillsborough Township Public School District’s (“District”) expense. The District notified […]
Third Circuit Upholds Dismissal of Parents’ Complaint for Failure to Exhaust Administrative Remedies – Again
In the last year, our federal courts have addressed the exhaustion of administrative remedies requirement for parents who bring claims against a school district on behalf of a disabled student under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (“Section 504”). Notably, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in February 2017 in Fry v. Napoleon Community Schools that parents are required to exhaust administrative remedies under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) when the heart of their complaint alleges a denial of a free appropriate public education (“FAPE”). The Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which applies to New Jersey, recently applied the […]
Proactive Representation Part II: Proving a Case for Emergent Relief on Behalf of a School District
By: Cameron R. Morgan, Esq. Editor: Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, Esq. In last week’s segment, we discussed the importance of filing for due process and seeking emergent relief on behalf of a school district when the parents of a child receiving special education and related services take action, or refused to take action, in a way that prevents the district from fulfilling its legal obligation under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) to provide the child with his or her right to a free and appropriate public education (“FAPE”). Today, we discuss the mechanics of doing so and highlight the […]
Proactive Representation Part I: Knowing When to File for Due Process or Seek Emergent Relief on Behalf of a School District
By: Cameron R. Morgan, Esq. Editor: Sanmathi (Sanu) Dev, Esq. In the increasingly litigious world of special education, New Jersey school districts and Board attorneys are generally accustomed to being on the receiving end of lawsuits with parents. Yet, understanding how and under what circumstances to file for due process or seek emergent relief can be just as important to ensuring your district is legally compliant as defending a due process petition filed by a parent. Special education practitioners representing districts that are facing uncooperative parents would do well to remember one thing: when parents place the child study team […]
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