On December 10, 2010, the Department of Public Instruction received a complaint under state and federal special education law from XXXXX against the Milwaukee Public Schools (MPS). This is the departments decision regarding that complaint. The issue is whether the district, in June 2010, provided the parent a copy of the individualized education program (IEP) team evaluation report.
A local education agency (LEA) must give a copy of the childs evaluation report and the documentation of determination of eligibility to the childs parent at no cost. On June 2, 2010, an IEP team meeting was conducted to determine whether the child was a child with a disability. The childs mother attended the IEP team meeting. The team determined the child was not a child with a disability. At the IEP team meeting, the childs mother requested a copy of the childs evaluation report and the documentation of determination of eligibility. She was given a copy with draft written on the document.
The normal procedure followed by the diagnostic teacher at the school is to bring a draft document to the IEP team meeting for discussion, collect the draft documents at the end of the meeting, and after the meeting revise the computerized document to reflect the teams discussion and decisions. After these revisions, the computerized document is then locked and a final version immediately mailed by the diagnostic teacher. The district computerized IEP system documented the evaluation was locked at 3:13 p.m. on June 2, 2010. The diagnostic teacher mailed a copy of the childs evaluation report and the documentation of determination of eligibility on June 2, 2010. On January 28, 2011, in response to this complaint, the district mailed a second evaluation report and the documentation of determination of eligibility to the parent.
This concludes our review of this complaint, which we are closing.
//signed CST 1/31/11
Carolyn Stanford Taylor
Assistant State Superintendent
Division for Learning Support: Equity and Advocacy
Dec/jfd