Opinion ID: 3010241
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Definition/ Historical Background

Text: We now turn to the more difficult aspect of this case - - the cross-appeal of J.C. from the district court's order 11 denying compensatory education. Under IDEA, a disabled student is entitled to free, appropriate education until he or she reaches age twenty-one. 20 U.S.C. § 1412(2)(b). A court award of compensatory education requires a school district to provide education past a child's twenty-first birthday to make up for any earlier deprivation.4 Federal courts began awarding compensatory education after the Supreme Court determined in School Committee of Burlington v. Department of Education, 471 U.S. 359, 370-71 (1985), that tuition reimbursement was appropriate under the Education of the Handicapped Act, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1401-1461 (1982) (IDEA's predecessor). In a typical reimbursement scenario, a parent who believed that a child was not receiving an appropriate public education would place the child in private education at his or her own expense. Under Burlington, if a court later determined that the private placement was the appropriate one, the school district would have to reimburse the parent. Tuition reimbursement was the Court's vehicle for satisfying both IDEA's pronouncement that children are entitled 4 At least one federal court, see Johnson v. Bismarck Pub. Sch. Dist., 949 F.2d 1000, 1002 (8th Cir 1991), and numerous administrative law judges have upheld or awarded compensatory education during the summer months rather than after age twentyone. See Perry A. Zirkel, Compensatory Education -- Questions and Answers, 10 The Special Educator 1, 147 (Dec. 10, 1994). Parenthetically, the term compensatory education may also be used in a different sense to refer to special programs and services provided to at-risk students who are not succeeding in school but do not qualify for special education. Such programs include alternative schools, pregnancy and parenting programs, and group counseling programs. See, e.g., Catherine P. Clark, Compensatory Education in Texas (1993). 12 to a free appropriate education and the congressional intent to provide relief for the deprivation of this right. See Lester H. v. Gilhool, 916 F.2d 865, 872 (3d Cir. 1990), cert. denied, 499 U.S. 923 (1991). Extending the Burlington decision, the Eighth Circuit in Miener v. Missouri, 800 F.2d 749, 754 (8th Cir. 1986), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 909 (1982), awarded compensatory education. The court reasoned that, like retroactive tuition reimbursement, compensatory education required school districts to 'belatedly pay expenses that [they] should have paid all along.' Id. at 753 (quoting Burlington, 471 U.S. at 370-71). The court was confident that Congress did not intend the child's entitlement to free education to turn upon her parent's ability to 'front' its costs. Id. In Lester H., we adopted the position of the Miener court and approved a compensatory remedy. 916 F.2d at 873.5