Complaint Summary

Date:

October 20, 2025

Case Number:

25-0266

Grade Level:

Elementary

Person filing complaint:

Parent

School District:

Preston Public Schools

Allegation(s):

• The Parent alleged that they submitted the required form for the Student to receive homebound instruction multiple times and that the Student received no instruction since the beginning of the 2024-25 school year. The Parent also alleged that the Student received homebound instruction at the end of the 2023-24 school year. RCSA § 10-76d-15.

Conclusion(s):

• The Student was provided with tutoring for the second half of the 2023-2024 school year at the District’s middle school based on the fact that the Student was not attending his District elementary school. It was noted at the PPT meeting held on June 11, 2024, that the Student’s tutoring would end at the end of the 2023-2024 school year and the plan for the 2024-2025 school year was for the Student to attend an agreed upon Montessori School, pending acceptance, or for the Student to return to his District school. When the Student was not accepted at the Montessori School for the start of the 2024-2025 school year, there is no evidence of communication between the District and Parents and no plan to support the Student’s re-entry to a school building in which the Student and the Parents were adamant that the Student could not attend due to incidents that occurred during the 2022-2023 school year that allegedly exacerbated the Student’s anxiety. While a PPT meeting was held on September 19, 2024, to revise the Student’s IEP to reflect special education and related services for in-person school attendance, again there is no documentation of any re-entry or support plan to assist the Student with returning to his District elementary school. It is also noted that the IEP dated April 29, 2025, indicated that the Student would begin attending the APSEP on a shortened day and that the APSEP would work with the family on increasing the Student’s attendance from half to full day attendance. During the 2024-2025 school year, there is no documentation of a similar attempt made by the District when recommending that the Student attend school in-person, within the District. The Parents repeatedly submitted notes, letters, and the District’s homebound instruction form from the Student’s medical providers attempting to secure homebound instruction due to a verified medical reason which includes mental health issues. The District followed the requirements of RCSA § 10-76d-15 which outlines the documentation required of the District to provide homebound instruction due to a verified medical reason. While it is noted that the multiple submissions of the District’s homebound instruction form were denied by the District due to the determination that they were incomplete forms and that the District reviewed and considered the neuropsychological evaluation in June 2024 obtained by the Parents which provided recommended in-school supports, the District also acknowledges that the Student did not attend school or receive any instruction from the start of the 2024-2025 school year through their response to this complaint on March 28, 2025. The District maintains that they were ready to provide in-person instruction for the Student at his District school throughout the 2024-2025 school year. CFR § 300.101 requires a school district to provide a free appropriate public education (FAPE) to all children residing in their school district. In order to do so, a school district must offer an IEP that is appropriate in light of the child’s circumstances. In the absence of documentation of the District’s attempts to re-engage the Student, address the chronic absenteeism and school avoidance, and review and revise the IEP to include additional services or supports to re-engage the Student, they are found be in violation of CFR § 300.101. Corrective action is required. While it was recommended under the PPT recommendations that tutoring ended at the end of the 2023-2024 school year, the special education and related services grid was not updated in the IEP dated June 11, 2024, to reflect special education and related services in the school setting for the start of the 2024-2025 school year.

Corrective Action(s):

1. The District must provide the Student with compensatory education services in order to place the Student in the position he would have obtained but for the District’s failure to provide FAPE. The location of the services must be mutually agreed upon by the District and Parents and cannot be provided at the District elementary school unless the Parents agrees. The Student is to receive 130 hours of academic skills instruction. If the Parent feels that such compensatory services would be overly burdensome or stressful to the student, the Parent, in collaboration with the District, through the PPT process, may determine an alternate number of compensatory service hours or identify alternative compensatory service strategies, methods or programs to compensate the Student. A log must be kept for the compensatory services and include the date, time, length of session, and focus of the session. The CSDE must receive monthly updates on the completion of the compensatory education services beginning on December 1, 2025. The monthly logs must be sent to this investigator. All compensatory education services must be completed by October 1, 2026.
2. The District must reimburse the family upon receipt of the required documentation for the District's business office for the Student’s attendance at the Montessori School’s summer program of 2024 in the amount of $900. Confirmation of this payment must be sent to this investigator on or before December 19, 2025. The special education and related services grid indicated that the Student would receive 300 minutes, 1 time per week of Academic Skills with responsible staff and service implementer as a Tutor from May 30, 2024, through May 29, 2025, in site 2b/separate setting/program with the instructional service delivery of 1:1 tutoring at [District middle school]. The District cited an issue with the Connecticut Special Education Data System (CT-SEDS) for the reason that they were unable to end special education services under the special education and related services grid prior to the end date of the IEP. It is true that CT-SEDS has built in rules of completion to ensure that at least one special education and/or related service are delivered until the end of the IEP period, however, CT-SEDS does not prevent the District from accurately documenting the services recommended by the PPT in order for the student to receive FAPE which the District was obligated to do in this case to ensure services were in place for the start of the 2024-2025 school year. While PPT recommendations are useful to have documented, such documentation of recommendations is not an IDEA requirement. It is the information contained in the IEP’s services grid which is IDEA required and, therefore, represents the portion of the IEP that itemizes the required services to be provided to the Student. In the event of discrepancies between the PPT recommendations and the information contained in the IEP services grid, the IEP services grid represents what is required to be provided to the Student. The District agreed to pay for the Student to attend the Montessori School’s summer program in the summer of 2024. The District acknowledges this agreement which is also confirmed by the PPT Record of Meeting dated June 11, 2024. The Student attended the Montessori School’s summer program for 3 weeks during the summer of 2024. Although the District agreed to pay for the Student’s attendance at the summer program, the Parents paid $900.00 for the Student to attend. The District reported to this investigator that to date, the District has not received an invoice for the summer program, but remains ready, willing, and able to pay for the program upon receipt of an invoice from the school. Corrective action is required.