SEATTLE (AP) - A judge has ruled that a school district in Washington state violated federal disabilities law and ordered the district to pay more than $160,000 to a family who accused educators of failing their now-teenage son.
Judge Matthew D. Wacker ruled that the Issaquah School District violated the Individuals with Disability Education Act, which makes it illegal for schools to refuse to educate to students because of disabilities, The Seattle Times reported Monday.
Under the law, all students are entitled to a “free and appropriate public education,” and this education must occur in the “least restrictive environment” until they turn 21, the newspaper reported.
The judge’s final order issued last month said the boy diagnosed with autism, ADHD, ADD and learning disabilities struggled in school since before he was in fourth grade. The parents are withholding his identity.
The order said the student did not receive regular check-ins, evaluations or adequate support at Issaquah Middle School and ended sixth grade with D’s and F’s - plus plummeting self-esteem and motivation.
His parents enrolled him in Yellow Wood Academy, a private K-12 school in Mercer Island and filed a complaint against the Issaquah School District in August 2018 before their son started eighth grade.
“This case is about a kid who fell through the cracks at the school district, and it got worse and worse,” said lawyer Diane Wiscarson, who represents the family. “There came a time when the parents, literally, could not get their kid out of bed to go to school.”
The student was found to be eligible for special education in 2008 for developmental delays, but the district reevaluated him the next year and decided he was no longer eligible, The Seattle Times reported.
The Issaquah School District again determined he was eligible for special education in 2011 for autism but accommodations made by his parents and special education instructors did not help, the judge’s order said.
Wacker ruled Issaquah failed to keep accurate records, issue progress reports, provide the boy’s parents with proper documentation and provide the student with free, appropriate public education during the 2016 and 2017 academic school years when he was in sixth and seventh grade.
The district declined to comment on the ruling because, citing limitations involving confidential student matters.
“Based on nearly 13 years’ experience conducting due process hearings under the IDEA, it is frankly inconceivable to the undersigned (judge) how the District failed to recognize there was something so seriously wrong with the Student during (sixth grade) that he needed to be reevaluated to find out what was happening,” Wacker said.
The district must now reimburse the family for the private tuition paid so far at Yellow Wood Academy, an evaluation they paid for and transportation to and from the private school, among other things.
The district was also ordered to cover the student’s future tuition costs at the private school until the district can provide free appropriate public education, Wiscarson said.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.