On July 1, 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 was 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, 30 minutes sessions per week of speech and language services. The district has acknowledged the student missed 16 sessions during the school year due to the therapist being unavailable or due to a schedule change. The number of missed sessions was determined using 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.
Six speech and language sessions were made up during the last month of the school year. The district has agreed to provide additional compensatory services 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 will provide, by September 15, a copy of the written procedures for the process.
Within 30 days from the date of this decision, the district will conduct an IEP team meeting to discuss and document the compensatory services needed to address the district’s failure to provide all required speech and language therapy services to the student during the 2013-14 school year. The district will provide documentation of the IEP team decision regarding compensatory services within 10 days of the meeting.
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 8/21/2014
Carolyn Stanford Taylor
Assistant State Superintendent
Division for Learning Support
Dec/pfv