Source: https://www.specialedlaw.com/database/wachusett-regional-school-district-bsea-98-4818/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 10:36:59+00:00

Document:
The official record of the hearing consists of documents submitted by the Parents marked P-1 through P-301, documents submitted by the school labelled S-1 through S-43, and approximately 6 hours of recorded oral testimony. Both parties submitted written closing arguments by February 18, 1999, and the record closed on that date.
1. Whether the 502.8(b) Individualized Education Plan proposed by Wachusett for the 1998-1999 school year was reasonably calculated to provide the maximum feasible educational benefit to the Student in the least restrictive setting?
2. If not, is the Parents’ unilateral placement at the Chatterbox Preschool, appropriate to address the Student’s special education needs?
3. Is the Student entitled to compensatory educational services as a result of Wachusett’s failure to implement the last agreed upon individualized education plan?
2. A Team meeting was held on December 11, 1996. The Team developed an IEP calling for delivery of two thirty minute sessions of outpatient speech/language therapy. (S-5, P-163) The Parents accepted the proposed plan on January 21, 1997. The Team reconvened on March 10, 1997, and, at the parents’ request, amended the plan to increase the Student’s speech/language service to three thirty minute outpatient sessions per week. (S-6, P-13) The Parents accepted the proposed amendment on March 17, 1999. That constitutes the last accepted educational plan for this Student.
On March 31, 1997, then Administrator of Early Childhood Education, Joanne Howard wrote to the Parents suggesting that the Student attend a preschool program which could provide “additional structured communication opportunities with other children” and offering to include an additional half hour with the speech therapist within the classroom setting. (S-7, P-160) There is no indication in the record that this suggestion was the result of a Team meeting, was incorporated into a proposed IEP, or was responded to in any way by the Parents.
4. At a Team meeting held on June 9, 1997, the Parents requested a “full” evaluation as recommended by the Student’s speech/language therapist. Wachusett offered to fund an independent evaluation. The Parents selected Boston Children’s Hospital and scheduled a speech/language assessment for September, 1997, and a developmental evaluation for October, 1997. The record does not disclose whether Wachusett had any contact with the Children’s Hospital Team to determine whether these components constituted a “full” evaluation. (S-18-23, P-142-149) No IEP resulted from the June 9, 1997, Team meeting.
9. On May 5, 1998, the Parents notified Wachusett that the Student would attend a summer program through Personal Communications Pediatric Services. (S-31, P-137) There is no indication that Wachusett responded to the Parents’ request for summer services. The Team did not reconvene to discuss the issue of extended year services for this Student.
11. On July 21, 1998, the Parents notified Wachusett that due to its failure to perform the recommended cognitive assessment, they had arranged for an evaluation at Personal Communications Pediatric Services. (S-35, P-135) Valerie Chase, an experienced Speech/Language Pathologist and Director of Personal Communications Pediatric Services/Chatterbox Preschool, conducted a Developmental Assessment of the Student on August 3, 1998. She found that the Student’s overall language skills were delayed one to one and half years below her chronological age. In particular, Ms. Chase noted, because of the Student’s significant auditory processing difficulty, she became overwhelmed with noise and competing auditory and visual and movement input. Ms. Chase recommended that the Student: attend a very highly structured language-based program which will emphasize auditory decoding of direction, questions, and descriptions. Classroom instruction should incorporate visual schedules, picture icons of directives, and picture-board augmentative supports. A small group of no more than 6-7 children with minimal visual and auditory distractions is essential. Programming should be provided daily (5 days per week).
In addition, intensive one-to-one speech-language therapy should be provided daily to develop [the Student’s] ability to decode verbal information and utilize language to further develop her social interactive and learning abilities. (P-53, see also Testimony of Chase.) At the hearing Ms. Chase explained that the Student’s attentional and auditory processing difficulties made it very hard for her to focus when there were different activities going on in the same space. The Student needs quiet, highly structured activities with visual cuing and repetition in order to comprehend and learn verbal language. Ms. Chase also emphasized the importance of home-school instruction and collaboration to improve the Student’s understanding, provide opportunities to practice and promote consistency. (Chase).
13. Miriam Sexton, a licensed child psychologist, conducted an independent psychological evaluation on October 8, 1998. She found the Student to test in the low average range of intellectual functioning with the predictable division of scores based on her language based disability. The Student performed significantly better on tasks involving spatial and non-verbal reasoning than on more language dependent subtests. Dr. Sexton’s findings and recommendations were consistent with those of all prior evaluators. She found the Student to have a “substantial” language disorder and delays in visual-perceptual-organizational-motor skills. Dr. Sexton recommended that the Student attend a language based preschool program with a small class size, minimal auditory and visual distractions, and visual cues to support language instruction. Dr. Sexton also recommended that the Student receive “intensive” speech/language therapy services. Finally Dr. Sexton recommended that the Student receive an occupational therapy evaluation. (P-40-50.) No Team meeting was convened to consider the results of Dr. Sexton’s independent evaluation. To date no occupational therapy evaluation has been offered by Wachusett or conducted by another evaluator.
There is no dispute that this Student has special learning needs as defined by M.G.L. c.71B and 20 U.S.C. § 1401 et seq ., and is thus entitled to receive a free, appropriate public education. The question presented here is whether the Wachusett Regional School District has offered her one. After a careful review of all the evidence submitted in this hearing, and consideration of the arguments of both parties, it is my conclusion that Wachusett has failed to provide a free, appropriate public education consistent with the requirements of state and federal special education laws to this Student.
Addressing first the substantive educational needs of this Student I rely primarily on the recommendations of the two most recent evaluators, Ms. Chase and Dr. Sexton. (S-43, P-40, P-51) They each recommended that the Student attend an intensive, language-based, preschool program in a small instructional group of no more than seven children. They recommended a highly structured, highly focussed curriculum, the use of intentional visual cues and supports and the elimination of visual and auditory distractions. They recommended that the Student receive additional, direct speech/language therapy, in a distraction free setting. They both emphasized home collaboration and support. These then are the minimum elements required for an appropriate special education program for this Student. None exist in the early childhood center program proposed by Wachusett. (See ¶ 15) All are present in the Chatterbox Preschool in which the Student was unilaterally enrolled in July, 1998. (See ¶ 14) The recommendations of Ms. Chase and Dr. Sexton are consistent with each other, consistent with the findings and suggestions made by previous evaluators, (S-27, P-65; S-26, P-72; S-3, P-92; S-7, P-276) and consistent with the Parents’ observations. (Testimony of Parent) There are no contrary, or even alternate, recommendations in the record.2 Therefore I find that the 1998-1999 Individualized Education Plan proposed by Wachusett calling for the Student’s placement in “a” early childhood center program is not reasonably calculated to provide the maximum feasible educational benefit to the Student in the least restrictive setting and does not offer her a free, appropriate public education. I further find that the evidence at the hearing supports the conclusion that the recommendations for appropriate educational programming have been, and are being, implemented at the Chatterbox Preschool. Therefore I find that the Parents were justified when they enrolled the Student in the Chatterbox Preschool.
3. Failure to review the Student’s progress within ten months of her initial placement. 603 CMR § 28.330.
5. Failure to implement an accepted IEP between June, 1997 and December, 1997. 604 CMR § 28.330.
6. Failure to deliver services consistent with the last agreed upon IEP since December, 1997. 603 CMR § 28.327.
It is clear from the record that Wachusett’s repeated failures to solicit necessary evaluations, and to fully consider those that were conducted, led directly to the development of an inappropriate IEP for this Student. It is equally clear that the failure of the school district to provide even the minimally appropriate therapeutic services to which it had agreed over the course of the last twenty months has necessarily resulted in egregious educational harm to this very young Student. How is it possible to calculate the effect of the withdrawal of 90 minutes per week of direct speech/language therapy over the course of 52 weeks on the development of appropriate language skills in a four year old? On this record I find that the Parents are to be commended for taking appropriate action to meet the educational needs of their daughter according to the recommendations of the evaluators when the school district would not.
The Parents are entitled to equitable relief as a result of Wachusett’s affirmative denial of the Student’s substantive and procedural rights to a free, appropriate public education. Florence County School District. Four v. Carter , 510 U.S. 7 (1993); School Committee of Burlington v. Massachusetts Department of Education , 471 U.S. 359 (1985). The Parents are entitled to reimbursement of all out-of-pocket expenses they incurred as a result of the Student’s unilateral placement at the Chatterbox Preschool for the 1998-1999 school year since Wachusett did not offer the Student an appropriate IEP for that school year. I note that although the evaluators have consistently recommended a five day classroom program along with additional direct speech/language therapy, the Parents were unable to afford such an intensive program. While the parents selected an appropriate program model for the Student, their financial constraints made the amount of service provision inadequate for the Student. At a minimum therefore, Wachusett is additionally responsible for compensating the Student for the two days per week of missed services due to its failure to develop an appropriate public program for the Student for 1998-1999.
5. Hold a Team meeting to consider the results of the Occupational Therapy Evaluation, to plan for the Student’s 1999-2000 school year program, and to consider additional compensatory services, no later than April 30, 1999.
In order to ensure compliance with this decision the Hearing Officer will retain jurisdiction of this matter until an IEP for the 1999-2000 school year has been accepted by the Parents.
The 1998-1999 502.8 (c) Individualized Education Plan proposed by Wachusett is substantively inappropriate and procedurally deficient. The Parent’s unilateral placement, the Chatterbox Preschool, meets the recommendations of the evaluators and is likely to provide the maximum feasible educational benefit to the Student in the least restrictive setting. The Parents are entitled to reimbursement for all out-of-pocket expenses incurred as a result of the school district’s failure to deliver agreed upon speech therapy services beginning in June, 1997, as well as its failure to offer an appropriate special education program for the 1998-1999 school year. Wachusett shall immediately implement all other remedial measures set out in this Decision.
Wachusett argues that I should not credit the testimony or report of Ms. Chase as she was essentially recommending her own program for this Student. Under other circumstances such a recommendation might be suspect. Here, however, where Wachusett failed to conduct its own evaluations, Ms. Chase’s findings are entirely consistent with all other independent observations, and Ms. Chase herself was a competent and credible witness. I find reliance on her expertise to be appropriate. I note also that even were I to discount the report and testimony of Ms. Chase the result here would be the same as all other credible evidence supports the conclusion that Wachusett’s proposed program is inappropriate for the Student.

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