IDEA Complaint Decision 24-129

On November 5, 2024, the Department of Public Instruction (department) received a complaint under state and federal special education law from #### (parent) against the #### (district). This is the department’s decision regarding that complaint. The issue is whether the district, during the 2024-25 school year, properly developed and implemented the individualized education program (IEP) of a student with a disability regarding speech and language therapy.

 

School districts must provide each student with a disability, a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment. School districts meet their obligation to provide FAPE to each student with a disability, in part, by developing and implementing each student's IEP as it is written. Staff responsible for implementing the student's IEP must be informed of their specific responsibilities. 34 CFR §300.323 and Wis. Stat. §115.787.

 

In Wisconsin, IEP teams are responsible for determining the appropriate educational placement for each student with a disability. Wis. Stat. § 115.78 (2)(c). A student's IEP team must determine the least restrictive environment for the student, and document placement options considered and rejected and the reasons they were rejected. 34 CFR § 300.114. An IEP team meeting is required when a change in IEP services also means making a change of educational placement. A change in educational placement often includes increasing or decreasing the amount of time a student spends in special education environments. The frequency, amount, location, and duration of special education services must be clearly stated in the IEP so the level of the agency’s commitment of resources will be clear to parents and everyone involved in developing or implementing the IEP. DPI Information Update Bulletin 24.02 Considering Services from a Speech-Language Pathologist for Students with Disability-Related Needs in the Area of Communication.

 

The IEP for the student who is the subject of this complaint requires the district to provide the student speech and language therapy as a related service for 30 minutes per week. Interviews confirm that during the 2023-24 school year, the student received these services each week in person as was written in the IEP. Prior to the 2024-25 school year, one of the district’s two speech and language pathologists (SLP) left their employment with the district. As the district was not able to hire an immediate replacement, the district contracted with an outside company to provide virtual speech and language services. This meant that all students in the district continued to receive their speech and language services, but some of the students would receive in-person services with the district’s SLP, and some students would receive them virtually through the contracted company. The district determined that younger students would be prioritized for in-person speech services, while older students would work with the outside company and receive virtual services. In August, the parents in this complaint were notified via email that the district would provide their child virtual speech services.

 

The student’s parents were concerned that virtual speech services would not meet their child’s needs, as their child had struggled in the virtual environment during school closures due to COVID-19. School staff met with the parents on October 30, 2024, to discuss the student’s speech services, but this was not an official IEP team meeting. The district offered to hold an IEP team meeting and to initiate a re-evaluation of the student, but the parents declined at that time, preferring to engage in the IDEA state complaint process. Interviews and review of service provider documents confirm that the student has received 30 minutes of virtual speech services during the 2024-25 school year and is making sufficient progress to meet their speech goals by the end of the term of the IEP.

 

The department recognizes that the number of speech and language pathologists in the state is not sufficient to provide all students in-person services, and that staff shortages are creating hardships for districts. However, in this situation the district erred when it determined which students would receive in-person services based on grade-level rather than the individual needs of the students. The district should have considered whether such services were appropriate for each student on an individual basis. Additionally, such a change in services may constitute a change in educational placement, the district should have held IEP team meetings to allow these individual considerations. In this student’s case, the district did not hold an IEP team meeting to consider whether virtual services were appropriate, nor did it consider whether providing the services in this manner was a change in placement.

 

 

Within 30 days of the date of this decision, the district must reconvene the student’s IEP team to determine the appropriate educational placement for the student as it relates to speech and language services. The district must submit a copy of the revised IEP to the department within 10 days of the IEP team meeting.

 

Additionally, within 30 days of the date of this decision, the district is directed to submit to the department for approval a corrective action plan to review the IEPs of all students in the district receiving speech and language services to ensure they are being provided appropriately and that their educational placements accurately reflect the determinations made based on individual needs by their IEP teams.

 

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. This decision is final for the IDEA State Complaint process. These issues may be addressed through other dispute resolutions, including mediation and due process hearings. For more information, visit the department’s website at http://dpi.wi.gov/sped/dispute-resolution or contact the special education team at (608) 266-1781.