On June 4, 2014, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) received a complaint under state and federal special education law from XXXXX against the River Valley School District. This is the department’s decision regarding that complaint. The issue is whether the district, during the 2013-14 school year, properly implemented the student’s individualized education program (IEP) regarding speech and language services.
The student’s IEP in effect for the 2013-14 school year required three sessions per week of speech and language services, with each session consisting of 25 minutes. On May 7, 2014, through electronic mail, the district informed the parent that the student did not receive 19 therapy sessions during the 2013-14 school year. Six of the sessions were missed because the student was absent, and the rest of the sessions were not received due to the therapist being unavailable or due to a schedule change. The district was able to determine the amount of sessions missed based on attendance records, school schedules, and from the speech and language pathologist’s review of her personal notes. The district did not provide all of the required speech and language therapy sessions during the 2013-14 school year as specified in the IEP.
The district provided compensatory services for the missed sessions, including make-up sessions due to student absences. Eighteen sessions were provided during the months of May and June. The district will provide the remaining session in the beginning of the 2014-15 school year. The district is also in the process of developing a tracking and monitoring system to ensure IEPs are properly implemented, and in the event a therapy session is missed, it is timely made-up. The district must submit to the department for review by September 15, 2014, a copy of the written procedures for the process. No further corrective action is required.
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 7/10/2014
Carolyn Stanford Taylor
Assistant State Superintendent
Division for Learning Support
Dec/pmw