Opinion ID: 65337
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Were the services provided in a coordinated and collaborative manner by the key stakeholders?

Text: The district court concluded that the services HISD provided V.P. were not coordinated and collaborative. The court explained that although V.P.'s IEP Committee meetings were well attended and generally included the key stakeholders, the participants failed to communicate and collaborate between meetings. For example, the special education chair never discussed V.P.'s progress with her classroom teacher outside of the meetings, and V.P.'s classroom teacher never discussed V.P.'s progress with V.P.'s writing teacher or other school staff outside of the Committee meetings. Furthermore, when V.P.'s classroom teacher missed a meeting in January 2004, the record does not reflect that anyone informed her of the modifications decided upon in that meeting, even though their implementation required the teacher's involvement. Additionally, the special education chair instructed V.P.'s classroom teacher to modify V.P.'s regular tests and assignments, but no such modifications were adopted by the Committee. The court also noted that the HISD staff struggled with training and followup. The court concluded that the one-page flyer provided to train school staff on working with hearing-impaired students was inadequate. Furthermore, the school nurse who was assigned to maintain V.P.'s FM system received little training and provided little training to the other staff members. The nurse did not attend the IEP Committee meetings and did not adequately communicate with others to repair V.P.'s FM loop system in a timely fashion. Finally, school staff did not follow up on V.P.'s failure to attend content mastery for more than two months or on an October 2003 Committee plan to try proposed modifications at Wainwright for thirty days before revisiting the possibility of placing V.P. in Sutton Elementary's oral deaf program. HISD maintains that these isolated occurrences are insufficient to show that it failed to implement substantial or significant provisions of V.P.'s IEP, that the services it provided were sufficient to confer an educational benefit upon V.P. and that the district court's determination that it failed to implement the content mastery provision of V.P.'s IEP is not supported by the record evidence. According to HISD, V.P.'s mother made the decision to prohibit V.P. from attending content mastery, and it could not force her to attend over her mother's instructions to the contrary. HISD further responds that the IEP Committee met multiple times during the school year to discuss V.P.'s progress and adjust her program accordingly, and that there was testimony from other teachers indicating that they communicated frequently regarding V.P., including testimony from V.P.'s classroom teacher that she often talked with V.P.'s mother and testimony from V.P.'s speech teacher that she worked closely with all of V.P.'s teachers. [A] party challenging the implementation of an IEP must show more than a de minimis failure to implement all elements of that IEP, and, instead, must demonstrate that the school board or other authorities failed to implement substantial or significant provisions of the IEP. Houston Indep. Sch. Dist. v. Bobby R., 200 F.3d 341, 349 (5th Cir.2000). What provisions are significant in an IEP should be determined in part based on whether the IEP services that were provided actually conferred an educational benefit. Id. at 349 n.2. The district court did not clearly err in concluding that the problems it outlined constituted a substantial interference with V.P.'s IEP. First, due to poor communication and collaboration between the Wainwright school nurse assigned to monitor the system and others, the FM loop system in V.P.'s classroom was out of service for approximately two months. Furthermore, while the FM loop was broken, school personnel allowed V.P. to wear the alternative headphone system over her hearing aids, which was improper and potentially harmful. Second, the special education chair instructed V.P.'s classroom teacher to provide testing and assignment modifications, despite the fact that no such modifications were included in V.P.'s IEP. The special education chair's unilateral decision to change the IEP suggests a lack of coordination and collaboration with V.P.'s other key stakeholders. Third, the IEP Committee did not effectively communicate and collaborate to timely address V.P.'s failure to attend content mastery. Although there is evidence that V.P.'s mother made the decision to remove V.P. temporarily from the service, the school staff failed to follow up on V.P.'s extended absence. Finally, V.P.'s classroom teacher testified that in November 2003, V.P.'s one-on-one aide stopped coming to work with V.P. for approximately three to four weeks at the direction of the school principal, despite the fact that V.P.'s IEP called for one-on-one assistance. In addition to problems with the implementation of V.P.'s IEP, the district court did not clearly err in finding that V.P.'s key stakeholders were inadequately trained. Although the school provided its personnel with a one-page tip sheet for working with an auditory or speech impaired child, such minimal training was insufficient. Moreover, despite such training, V.P.'s classroom teacher, one of the most important stakeholders, explained that she was unable to communicate effectively with V.P. and evaluate her progress.