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New Haven 24-0282

Complaint Summary

Date:

February 2024

Case Number:

24-0282

School District:

New Haven Public Schools (single student)

Grade Level:

Elementary School

Allegation(s):

  • Student not being education in the least restrictive environment (LRE) (34 CFR § 300.114)
  • Failing to implement the student’s IEP (34 CFR §300.17(d))

Conclusion(s):

  • The District was found in violation of 34 CFR §300.17(d) for failing to implement the student’s IEP, and in violation of (34 CFR § 300.114) for not implementing the student’s IEP in the LRE.
  • The Student had been receiving instruction in the home since the end of April of 2023 until the complaint was filed.  The Student was receiving instruction in the home while awaiting an out-of-district placement.  During this time period, the Student missed 261 hours of special education academic instruction, 7 hours of counseling, and 78 hours of behavioral support. 
  • Agencies providing out-of-district placements are considered third-party vendors and, while such vendors have restrictions related to the students that they accept, those restrictions do not relieve the District of its obligation to provide the Student with an appropriate program (i.e., one similar to that which the District intended to provide to the Student through the out-of-district placement). Further, when the Student’s placement was determined to be instruction in the home, an LRE Procedural Checklist had not been used to assist in determining if the Student’s placement was meeting LRE requirements.
  • It is generally accepted that there may be a short-term disruption of services while a student is awaiting a placement, but given the significant duration of this Student’s disruption of services, the District was obligated to revisit the interim plan and begin providing a more robust program while the Student awaited placement. This, especially since there was no other recorded activity to indicate that the District initially, or subsequently, attempted to find ways to provide the Student with services in a less restrictive environment before going immediately to instruction in the home. An accumulation of almost 350 missed service hours primarily due to such restrictive placement is unacceptable.

Corrective Action(s):

  • District shall convene a PPT meeting to Revise the Student’s IEP to provide 4 hours per day of Academic Skills Instruction, in-person, based on his, IEP Reading and Math goals, with a special education certified tutor. Also, in alignment with the Student’s IEP, provide 30 minutes per week of Social Skills Instruction in a format and setting to be determined by the provider. If it is determined by the Parent that 4 hours per day of academic instruction is too overwhelming to the Student the Parent may agree to an appropriate reduction in total hours per week of such services.
  • Develop a compensatory services plan to provide the Student with 261 hours of special education academic instruction and 9 hours of counseling services, to address the missed service hours in those areas. Should this number of compensatory hours be determined by the Parent to be too overwhelming to the Student, the Parent may agree to an appropriate reduction of those hours or to an alternate means of compensating the Student (e.g., other programmatic options to support the Student, etc.)
  • In lieu of providing the 78 missed hours of behavioral support outside of the context of the Student’s educational environment, the District shall ensure that a Board Certified Behavioral Analysist (BCBA) conducts a Functional Behavior Assessment (FBA) for the Student and, from that FBA, develops a Behavioral Intervention Plan (BIP) to support the Student’sbehavioral issues. If a BIP currently exists, the BIP shall be reviewed and revised, as needed, based on the results of the FBA.
  • Consider options to support the Student’s attendance in a less restrictive environment (while awaiting an out-of-district placement) such as district buildings, schools or offices with appropriate supports and personnel. If an appropriate less restrictive option is found, initiate that change and remove the Student from homebound instruction to the less restrictive environment.
  • No later than April 20, 2024, the District shall begin providing the Student with a district-run program similar to that which the District intended to provide to the Student in an out-of-district placement (not instruction in the home), if the Student has not begun attending an out-of-district placement by that time. Such district-run program may be provided with the intention that it be either a permanent placement or until such time that the Student begins attending an appropriate out-of-district placement, which ever represents the Student’s LRE. (Note: April 20, 2024, represents the one-year mark from the date that the Student was discharged from ACES Mill Road School and was placed on in home instruction)
  • On or before March 15, 2024, the District shall provide staff training for all special education staff related to the difference between ‘homebound instruction’ and ‘instruction in the home’. Such training may be based on the descriptions, but not restricted to, the descriptions in Findings of Facts #9 above. Such training may take the form of in-person training, memorandum, on-line training, email notification, or another appropriate form as determined by the District