Punishment of School District Not 'Appropriate' Relief Under IDEA

 
By Wendy Beetlestone
Special to the Legal

In C.W. v. The Rose Tree Media School District, the 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals was asked to define the contours of "appropriate" relief for violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

The parents of a disabled child had placed the child in a private school after they had requested an evaluation by the school district but before their request for a due process hearing was acted upon more than two years later. The parents alleged that the extended delay between the request for a due process hearing and the ultimate resolution of their dispute with the school district was so egregiously prolonged that an award of tuition reimbursement or compensatory education was "appropriate" under IDEA. 

The 3rd Circuit concluded that despite the broad discretion given to courts to craft remedies for violations of the IDEA, reimbursement for private school fees was appropriate only if both the public placement violated the IDEA and the private school placement was proper under the IDEA.

In this case, the district had offered the student a free appropriate public education. The fact that there was an extended delay in implementing the individualized education program (IEP) had no relevance to the appropriateness of the education offered to the student. Punishment of the district by requiring reimbursement of tuition did not advance the goal of providing education to those with disabilities and was, therefore, inappropriate. 

Similarly, the student was not eligible for compensatory education because compensatory education is designed to compensate students with disabilities who have not received an appropriate education, not to punish schools for failing to follow the established procedures for providing such an education.

 Wendy Beetlestone is a shareholder at Hangley Aronchick Segal & Pudlin, where she is chair of the firm's education practice group. She is also the 3rd Circuit reporter for the School Law Reporter, which will publish this entry. She can be reached at [email protected]