Dealing with School Districts & Advocating for Your Rights

Is your child's public school failing to adapt to the pandemic in order to meet your child's needs?

School districts have their own policies and practices for managing special education services. School districts have a tendency to think with their purses. It is perhaps understandable, but by no means justifiable, that a school district might make important decisions about a child's education based on the resources it has available and not based on the individual needs of that child regardless of cost. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has previously recognized that "school districts striving to balance their budgets, if left to their own devices, will favor education options that enable them to conserve resources." 

​

It is now well-established that a school district's obligation is to provide children with disabilities with interventions and supports according to the unique needs of those children, and not based on administrative convenience or what resources the school district has available. The Second Circuit Court has stated that a school district "may select the specific school without the advice of the parents so long as it conforms to the program offered in the IEP." 
 

The Southern District of New York (SDNY) considered a parent's claim for private school funding as a result of the district's conceded failure to provide an appropriate public school education. The school district admitted it did not do its job, but still did not want to pay for the child’s special education services. The Court addressed a number of issues, including whether a parent's financial need and inability to fund the cost of a private placement should bar an award of funding for the private program. In the case of Mr. and Mrs. A. v. NYC Department of Education, the SDNY considered this issue and determined that, where parents lack the financial resources to front the costs of private school tuition, parents who satisfy all other factors have a right to retroactive direct tuition payment relief. 

​

If a special needs parent disagrees with the education services provided by their school district, under federal law a student with a disability is allowed to stay at his/her "last agreed upon placement" while due process proceedings are pending.  If the last agreed upon placement is a private school, the school district must pay for the costs of the child's education at that private school for as long as the private school is the last agreed upon placement. 

​

If you are not satisfied with the education services and programs provided by your school district for your child with a disability or delay, a special education lawyer can help make sure that your child’s rights are protected by the education system.