Hartford 24-0587

Complaint Summary

Date:

July 26, 2024

Case Number:

24-0587

Grade Level:

Elementary

Person filing complaint

Office of the Child Advocate

School District:

Hartford (single student)

Allegation(s):

  • Failure to provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to the Student by offering an individualized education program (IEP) that is reasonably calculated to enable the Student to make progress and that is more than de minimis and appropriate in the light of the Student’s circumstances by proposing that the Student’s IEP be implemented virtually during the time that the Student was hospitalized (34 CFR § 300.101)

Conclusion(s):

  • The District is in violation of 34 CFR § 300.101. The Student began demonstrating a significant lack of progress at the start of the 2024 calendar year, as shown on the Student’s IEP progress report (no progress with the exception of one objective). The District did not convene a PPT meeting at that time to discuss the Student’s lack of progress and review and revise the IEP. The District met in April of 2024 to review the Student’s program almost one month after the Student was hospitalized. This represents a significant gap in attending to the Student’s program. The program designed during the PPT meeting could not have been successful if DCF did not supplement the services by committing an in-person staff to attend when the Student was being tutored virtually. It was possible for the Student’s IEP to be implemented during the Student’s hospitalization given the technology provided to the Student, the virtual tutor, and the in-person support from DCF while the Student was being virtually tutored. In that aspect it was possible to provide FAPE to the Student. Regardless of the District’s potential ability to implement the IEP and provide FAPE, based on the Student’s lack of progress shown on the January 2024 and June 2024 progress reports on IEP goals and objectives, the program provided to the Student could not be considered as having been reasonably calculated to enable the student to make progress that is more than de minimis.

Corrective Action(s):

  • The District shall convene a PPT meeting for the purposes of developing a compensatory services plan for the Student which provides 79 hours of missed services for IEP goals 1-7.
  • Review and revise the Student’s IEP to address the Student’s significant lack of progress.
  • Develop a plan to provide the Student’s services, moving forward, in an in-person format or, if providing virtual services, include the mandatory provision that an in-person staff be provided to work with the Student in collaboration with, and support of, the virtual teacher while the Student is receiving services.
  • The District shall provide the Bureau of Special Education with a copy of the IEP developed at the required PPT meeting and the Student’s compensatory services plan.