On October 28, 2010, the Department of Public Instruction received a complaint under state and federal special education law from XXXXX against the Luxemburg-Casco School District. This is the departments decision regarding that complaint. The issue is whether the district, since June 2010, properly implemented the students individualized education program (IEP) regarding the provision of occupational therapy (OT).
On May 20, 2010, an IEP team meeting was held for the purpose of developing an annual IEP, reviewing and revising an IEP, and determining placement. Under related services, the IEP stated the student was to receive OT services. The IEP listed OT as a related service for 60 minutes weekly.
In June of 2010, both the occupational therapist and the occupational therapy assistant notified the district of their intent not to renew their contracts for the 2010-2011 school year. The district began an exhaustive search for one full-time and one part-time licensed occupational therapist beginning July 1, 2010, and posted continuously until a licensed occupational therapist was hired in the beginning of November 2010.
Beginning on September 9, 2010, the student did not receive the OT services stated in the IEP. The student missed 210 scheduled minutes in September and 210 scheduled minutes in October for a total of 420 minutes. Beginning in November, the student was provided the services as required by the IEP. The district did not properly implement the students IEP regarding the provision of OT services.
On or before January 15, 2011, the district must reconvene the IEP team meeting to determine the compensatory services because of the failure to provide 420 minutes of OT during the months of September and October. By February 4, 2011, the district will submit a copy of the revised IEP to the department. By January 15, 2011, the district must also identify all other students who did not receive OT during this time. For each student, the district must conduct an IEP team meeting to consider compensatory services and provide a copy of the revised IEP to the department. The IEP team meetings must be completed by February 15, 2011, and the documentation must be submitted to the department no later than February 28, 2011.
All noncompliance identified above must be corrected as soon as possible, but in no case more than one year from the date of this decision. This concludes our review of this complaint.
//signed CST 12/16/2010
Carolyn Stanford Taylor
Assistant State Superintendent
Division for Learning Support: Equity and Advocacy
Dec/tag