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

Heading: Was the program individualized on the basis of V.P.'s assessment and performance?

Text: The district court found that V.P.'s IEPs were not sufficiently individualized to her needs. The court pointed to these deficiencies: as of May 2004, more than a year after V.P.'s IEP Committee recommended an audiological evaluation, the evaluation still had not been completed; V.P.'s IEPs were not specific enough with regard to V.P.'s auditory-processing or audiological deficiencies because they lacked strategies to assist with sequencing, gap detection, and noise desensitization; although the Committee recognized that V.P.'s most significant problems were speech and language deficiencies due to hearing loss, it did not integrate special education sessions with a teacher for hearing-impaired students until January 2004; and the Committee did not address problems that developed with V.P.'s FM loop system in September 2003. HISD argues that each of the bases for the district court's finding are erroneous. Initially, it asserts that a school district is not required to furnish every special service necessary to maximize a child's potential; consequently, HISD's failure to provide V.P. with sequencing training, gap detection, and noise desensitization did not render V.P.'s IEP inadequate. Instead, HISD maintains that these services were programs suggested by V.P.'s expert witness to remediate V.P.'s speech and auditory-processing disorder, and the fact that HISD failed to provide these services does not mean that V.P.'s needs were not being addressed. HISD further maintains that it should not be penalized for failing to include an explanation concerning the problems with V.P.'s FM loop system in the IEP Committee minutes. HISD points out that the problem was caught and corrected, and there is no requirement that the Committee's notes include all issues that arise on a day-to-day basis. V.P.'s IEP included several accommodations and modifications to address her general speech and auditory impairments, such as limited speech therapy (two hours per week), visual cues, preferential classroom seating, questioning to check understanding, an FM loop system, content mastery classes, and limited instruction by an itinerant teacher for the auditory impaired (one hour per week). However, these services failed adequately to address V.P.'s distinct auditory-processing disorder. V.P.'s expert witness, Dr. Ray Battin, a neuropsychologist and audiologist, testified that he performed an advanced audiological evaluation on V.P. in October 2004. Battin's evaluation revealed that V.P. has moderate to severe sensory hearing loss and severe auditory-processing problems. To address these problems, Battin explained that V.P. requires noise desensitization, sequencing training, and gap-detection work and that V.P.'s May 2004 IEP did not address those needs. Battin noted that although the May 2004 IEP was good for V.P.'s expressive language delay problems, it was inappropriate to address her auditory-processing disorder. In fact, Battin testified that V.P. needed a separate IEP for her auditory-processing disorder. In light of Battin's testimony, we find that noise desensitization, sequencing training, and gap-detection work were necessary to address V.P.'s specific auditory-processing problems and were not offered merely as a means of maximizing her potential or making her more competitive with the other members of her class. Accordingly, the district court did not clearly err in finding that V.P.'s IEP was insufficiently individualized.