Manchester Public Schools/APSEP 26-0217

Complaint Summary

Date Findings Report Sent

December 19, 2025

Case Number

26-0217

School District

Manchester Public Schools/APSEP

Person filing complaint

Parent

Grade Level

High school

Allegation(s)

Issue 1: The Parent alleged that there was no revision made to the Student's IEP on September 9, 2025, despite the Prior Written Notice indicating the District was proposing to change the provision of FAPE (IEP) and the description/reason of the proposed action was "reviewed and revised IEP." 34 CFR § 300.503 

Issue 2: The Parent alleged that the Student has not been provided with the daily in-person reading instruction or the ML services that were agreed upon at the PPT meetings held on April 23, 2025, and September 9, 2025. 34 CFR §§ 300.323(c)(2) and 300.17(d) and RCSA § 10-76d-1(a)(1)

Conclusion(s)

Issue 1: While the PWN dated September 9, 2025, satisfied the requirements of 34 CFR § 300.503(a) and 34 CFR § 300.503(b) with regard to the basic information required to be included on the PWN document, the information included was notably limited and required this investigator to ask the District to explain the change to the provision of FAPE (IEP) that the District had proposed at the PPT meeting. Best practice would include providing Parents with enough information on the PWN to clearly understand the proposed and refused actions. It is determined that the District did act in accordance with 34 CFR § 300.503 as the PWN indicated a revision to the IEP resulting in a change to the provision of FAPE based on the District's recommendation to add paraeducator support during the Student's virtual instruction. No corrective action is required. 

Through the course of this investigation, it was determined that the District was in violation of 34 CFR 300.320(a)(4) which requires that an individualized education program (IEP) includes a statement of the special education and related services and supplementary aids and services to be provided to the child to enable the child to advance appropriately toward attaining the annual goals. While the PPT recommendations included, "The district will support the addition of a [paraeducator] during the virtual instruction time to sit with and facilitate engagement in the virtual sessions", the paraeducator support is not reflected anywhere else in the IEP dated September 9, 2025. Paraeducator support should be noted under supplementary aids and services, indirect services, and/or special education and related services. Corrective action is required. 

Issue 2: Based on the recording of the PPT meeting held on April 23, 2025, 60 minutes per day of structured literacy instruction was recommended at the PPT meeting. The team discussed at length and agreed that in-person instruction was required based on the Student's needs. The District's only documentation of these services in the Summary of PPT Meeting document was not sufficient documentation of a PPT recommendation. Furthermore, the District's position that "an exact implementation timeline could not be written into the grid due to unresolved scheduling and provider availability factors involving both the [APSEP] and district personnel" as the reason why the reading services were not documented beyond the recommendations section in the IEP dated September 9, 2025, is not a legitimate reason to delay the documentation and implementation of agreed upon services.

The recording of the PPT meeting on April 23, 2025, confirms that the PPT agreed to implement the reading services on or before July 2025 through extended school year services. The District stated that a PPT meeting would be convened after the District gathered information regarding potential providers for the reading services. The recording of the PPT meeting on September 9, 2025, confirms that the PPT agreed to implement the reading services virtually while the District continued to seek a provider to deliver the instruction in person. 

As stated above, 34 CFR 300.320(a)(4) requires an individualized education program (IEP) to include a statement of the special education and related services and supplementary aids and services to be provided to the child to enable the child to advance appropriately toward attaining the annual goals. Identifying and recommending required services and then not adding goals and objectives or the service hours to the IEP due to issues with staffing/providers, does not negate the recommendation for the services. It is concluded that the District was responsible for implementing the recommended services as discussed at the PPT meeting held on April 23, 2025. The District is found to be in violation of 34 CFR §§ 300.323(c)(2) and 300.17(d) and RCSA § 10-76d-1(a)(1) for not providing the Student with the 60 minutes of daily reading instruction. Corrective action is required. 

With regard to the recommended ML services, EL/ML services should not be documented as a PPT recommendation, nor should they be written into the IEP as special education or related services. The special considerations section of the Student's IEPs dated April 23, 2025, and September 9, 2025, reflected the Student's language needs and recommendations. The ML services are also noted in the Summary of Planning and Placement Team (PPT) Meeting documents for both PPT meetings.

Corrective Action(s)

  1. The District must revise the Student's IEP to accurately reflect the following: 
    • The recommended 60 minutes per day of reading instruction in the special education and related services grid of the IEP;
    • Goal(s) and objectives for the recommended reading instruction based on present levels of performance; and 
    • The paraeducator support being provided to the Student under supplementary aids and services, indirect services, and/or special education and related services. The District must provide documentation of completion of this corrective action item to this investigator on or before January 30, 2026. 
  2. The District must provide the Student with compensatory education services in order to place the Student in the position she would have obtained but for the District's failure to provide the recommended services beginning in the extended school year program during the summer of 2025. The Student is to receive 74 hours of reading 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 February 1, 2026. The monthly logs must be sent to this investigator. All compensatory education services must be completed by December 31, 2026. 
  3. The District must provide this investigator with weekly updates on the District's efforts and success in securing a qualified individual to implement the Student's in-person daily instruction in structured literacy, beginning on January 9, 2026. The APSEP and the District must work together on a mutually agreed upon time for service delivery so as to not cause any further delays with service implementation.