Reimbursement
For Unilateral Placements
by
Herbert D. Hinkle, Esq. and Ira Fingles, Esq.
Hinkle,
Fingles & Prior, Attorneys at Law
2651 Main Street
Lawrenceville, New Jersey 08648
(609) 896-4200 or (215) 860-2100
Parents
of students with disabilities are not without options
if their local school districts fail to offer appropriate
services. The law allows parents to resort to self-help
to ensure that their children’s needs are met.
Parents are entitled to place their children into
private schools that they believe can meet their needs
and then seek reimbursement from the school district
for the costs of doing so. Generally, the parents
will be reimbursed if it is shown that the public
school failed to offer an appropriate program and
that the school selected by the parents was able to
meet the student’s needs.
A
case handled recently by our office illustrates how
this can be done. The parents of Glen N., a young
student with dyslexia and other disabilities, believed
that the school district’s Individualized Education
Program (“IEP”) failed to provide sufficiently
intensive in the areas of reading and writing. Therefore,
they gave the school district ten days’ written
notice that they intended to place Glen into a private
school and that they intended to hold the school district
responsible for the costs. (This notice is required
by the law.) They then placed Glen into a private
school that specialized in educating students with
language-based learning disabilities, following which
they requested a due process hearing to seek reimbursement
for the costs of the program.
The
Hearing Officer decided that the school district’s
program was indeed insufficient due to the lack of
adequate services in the areas of reading and writing.
The Hearing Officer also found that the private school
was appropriate for Glen. This was so even though
the private school was not an approved school for
educating students with disabilities. What mattered
to the Hearing Officer was whether the private school’s
program adequately addressed Glen’s reading
and writing needs, which she found that it did.
As
a result, the Hearing Officer ordered that the parents
be reimbursed for the tuition charges incurred at
the private school, along with transportation costs.
Because the parents won the case, the school district
was also required to reimburse the parents’
attorneys fees and costs of litigation.
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Hinkle,
Fingles, & Prior maintains a multi-state law practice
with offices in Lawrenceville, Marlton, and Florham
Park, New Jersey, and Yardley, and Plymouth Meeting,
Pennsylvania. They lecture and write frequently on
topics of law, aging, disability and estate planning
and are available
to speak to groups in New Jersey
and Pennsylvania at no charge.
Comments
and suggestions for future articles should be mailed
to: Hinkle, Fingles & Prior, Attorneys at Law,
2651 Main Street, Suite A, Lawrenceville, New Jersey
08648-1012.
Copyright
2007 Herbert D. Hinkle. All rights reserved.
