On August 11, 2014, the Department of Public Instruction (DPI) received a complaint under state and federal special education law from XXXXX against the Rice Lake 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).
The student’s IEP, in effect during the 2013-14 school year, stated the parent’s concerns about the student’s progress in math. The IEP team discussed the parent’s concerns and developed an annual math goal that included benchmarks in multiplication, subtraction of three and four digit numbers, addition of four and five digit numbers, mental math, structure quantities, and regrouping. The IEP stated progress toward meeting the annual math goal would be reported to parents biweekly, at parent teacher conferences, on report cards twice a year, and at the annual IEP meeting. The student’s IEP included specialized direct math instruction for 150 minutes per week and 150 minutes per week of additional classroom support. Documentation provided by the district demonstrates the student received direct math instruction from the special education teacher for 30 minutes each day, 5 days a week, and classroom support from a paraprofessional for 30 minutes each day, 5 days a week. The district properly implemented the student’s IEP services. The documentation supports that the special education teacher conducted various informal assessments on the student’s progress towards meeting the annual math goal and benchmarks. IEP progress reports were provided at parent teacher conferences, in report cards, and at the IEP meetings. However, the district did not provide the parents with biweekly progress reports, as stated in the IEP. The district did not properly implement the student’s IEP with regards to this provision.
Within 30 days of the date of this decision, the district must develop a corrective action plan to ensure parents are properly informed of the student’s progress toward IEP goals in accordance with the IEP.
The 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 10/9/2014
Carolyn Stanford Taylor
Assistant State Superintendent
Division for Learning Support
Dec/sah