Opinion ID: 2656175
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Fourth Year at Greenacres

Text: In October 2007, at the beginning of C.L.'s fourth year at Greenacres, the 504 Committee met and made no changes to the amended 504 Plan for 2007-08. In November 2007, a month after the 504 Committee created the 2007-08 504 Plan, C.L.'s parents requested a review by the District's Committee on Special Education (CSE) to determine whether C.L. was entitled under the IDEA to special education services, including the development of an IEP.2 The parents provided the CSE with the private evaluations of C.L., and the CSE conducted its own classroom observation, speech-language evaluation, and standardized testing of C.L., along with a developmental history interview of the parents. The speech-language evaluation indicated that C.L. was consistently performing in the average to significantly above average range. On the Stanford Diagnostic Reading Test, C.L. scored in the 82nd, 92nd, and 43rd percentiles in phonetic analysis, vocabulary, and comprehension respectively. On the first administration of the Stanford Diagnostic Mathematics Test, C.L. scored in the 9th and 3rd percentiles in concepts and applications and in 2 New York assigns responsibility for fulfilling the state's obligations under the IDEA to local Committees on Special Education. N.Y. Educ. Law § 4402(1)(b)(1)(a) (McKinney 1999); see also Walczak, 142 F.3d at 123. -12- computations respectively, but the test administrator believed those scores did not reflect C.L.'s abilities because he was not concentrating. The second administration a few days later placed C.L. in the 38th and 84th percentiles in concepts and applications and in computations respectively. After reviewing the private and District evaluations of C.L., the CSE concluded on January 8, 2008, that C.L. was not disabled under the IDEA and that he therefore was not eligible for special education services or an IEP. The CSE determined, however, that C.L. remained eligible for services and accommodations under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act. The CSE added that, [s]ince [C.L.'s] reading skills have improved, committee members would like to reduce his time in the LRC to two periods per week, to address his writing skills. In reaching these conclusions, the CSE acknowledged, as the parents contended, that C.L. had become increasingly resistant to attending the LRC . . . [and] fe[lt] stigmatized by having to leave the classroom to attend the LRC for four periods per week. In May 2008, the 504 Committee convened to begin planning for C.L.'s fourth grade year. The 2008-09 504 Plan continued the services C.L. was already receiving. As suggested by the CSE, however, C.L.'s LRC sessions were -13- reduced from four to two times a week. Dissatisfied with the progress he was making, C.L.'s parents informed the District on June 19, 2008, that they were withdrawing C.L. from Greenacres and enrolling him at the Eagle Hill School.