On November 8, 2013, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) received a complaint under state and federal special education law from XXXXX against XXXXX. This is the department’s decision on the complaint. The issue is whether the district, during the 2013-14 school year, properly provided transportation to a parentally placed private school student receiving speech and language therapy through a services plan.
A school district must provide transportation to a parentally placed private school student from his or her school to the service site if necessary for the student to participate in the services he or she has been designated to receive. The student in this case is six years old and has been designated to receive speech and language therapy 30 minutes per week at a public school. The public school is located approximately two blocks from the student’s private school. The school district provides an aide to accompany the student on the walk between the private school and the public school. The district properly considered all relevant information and concluded transportation was not necessary for the student to participate in speech and language therapy.
This concludes our review of this complaint, which we are closing.
//signed CST 12/10/2013
Carolyn Stanford Taylor
Assistant State Superintendent
Division for Learning Support
Dec/pas