Appeal No. 10-066 deals with a number of issues but mainly the issue of pendency. The parents, in this case, had placed their child at the Rebecca School as of September 2007 and through the 2008-2009 school year. An impartial hearing decision held that the Rebecca School was appropriate for the 2008-2009 school year (making it the "pendency placement"). The child then remained there through the 2009-2010 school year because the site recommended by the DOE was not a special class in a specialized school and, therefore, did not match the program recommended by the CSE and was not appropriate. The SRO upheld the determination of the impartial hearing officer who ordered the school district to reimburse the parents for their son's tuition at the Rebecca School for the 2009-2010 school year.
SRO Munoz also reiterated an important point regarding recoupment by the school district for money expended during pendency proceedings (which has was discussed on this Blog in a previous post re Recoupment), stating that "the current prevailing caselaw prohibits the district from recoupment of payments made pursuant to pendency" regardless of whether it is determined that the school district offered FAPE.