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Court Favors Parents in Battle Over Special-Education Tuition

Federal law authorizes reimbursements for private school tuition, even when a child has never received special education services from a public school, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled today.

The justices ruled 6-3 in Forest Grove School District v. T.A. (Case No. 08-305) that 1997 amendments to the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act meant to rein in the costs of private school placements did not remove the power of hearing officers and federal judges to order such reimbursements under the proper circumstances.

“A reading of the act that left parents without an adequate remedy when a school district unreasonably failed to identify a child with disabilities would not comport with Congress’ acknowledgment of the paramount importance of properly identifying each child eligible for services,” Justice John Paul Stevens wrote for the majority.

The case raised the question of whether parents in a special education dispute with a school district may be reimbursed for “unilaterally” placing their child in a private school when that child has never received special education services from the district. The court took up the same issue in 2007, in Board of Education of New York City v. Tom F., and deadlocked 4-4. Justice Kennedy had recused himself in the case for undisclosed reasons. (“Court Is Split on IDEA Private-Placement Case,” Oct. 17, 2007.)

The new case was from the 6,000-student Forest Grove district in Oregon. The district appealed a ruling in favor of parents who sent their son to a private school for children with behavioral and emotional problems some two years after a district evaluation had determined that the boy was ineligible for special education. The district eventually determined that the student had attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, but that the disorder wasn’t affecting his educational progress. The parents appealed to a hearing officer, who ruled they should be reimbursed for enrolling their son in a residential program with tuition of more than $5,000 a month.

A federal district court reversed the hearing officer, but a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit, in San Francisco, held in a 2-1 ruling last year that the district court should reconsider whether the parents were entitled to reimbursement. The IDEA says tuition reimbursements for such unilateral private school placements are available only to students “who previously received special education and related services.” The appeals court held that the language, added in the 1997 reauthorization of the IDEA, did not “create a categorical bar to recovery of private school reimbursement for all other students.”

That decision was then appealed to the Supreme Court, which heard arguments in May. In his opinion upholding the 9th Circuit today, Justice Stevens said there was no evidence Congress intended to “supersede” two other Supreme Court decisions that authorized reimbursement for private school tuition under the IDEA.

To read the complete article, please see: Edweek.org