IDEA Complaint Decision 25-071B

On May 23, 2025 (letter dated May 14, 2025), the Department of Public Instruction (department) received a complaint under state and federal special education law from #### (complainant) against the #### (district). This is the department’s decision regarding that complaint. The issues are whether the district, during the 2024-25 school year, properly developed the IEP of a student with a disability regarding specially designed transportation and properly provided prior written notice of its decision regarding an activity requested by the student’s parent.

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 an IEP based on the student’s unique disability-related needs that is reasonably calculated to enable the student to make progress appropriate in light of the student’s circumstances, documenting that program in the IEP, and implementing the program as articulated in the IEP. 34 CFR §§ 300.320-300.324; Wis. Stat. § 115.78(2). Specialized transportation is considered a related service. The student’s IEP team determines, based on the student's unique, disability-related needs, whether the student needs specialized transportation and, if so, how specialized transportation services will be provided. 34 CFR § 300.107.

The district must provide prior written notice to the parent of a student with a disability whenever the district proposes to initiate or change, or refuses to initiate or change, the educational placement of the student, including a description of any options considered and rejected and the reasons those options were rejected. 34 CFR § 300.114. In Wisconsin, the IEP team determines the appropriate educational placement for a student with a disability. Wis. Stat. § 115.78(2).

The complainant is the student’s parent. Their concern arises from a discussion of the student’s need for specialized transportation for the 2025-26 school year when the student will begin kindergarten. The discussion occurred at an IEP team meeting on January 8, 2025. The parent raised concerns regarding the location the transportation provider would use to pick the student up in the morning and drop the student off after school. The student lives in an apartment building with a small parking lot and the parent believes that based on the student’s disability-related needs they will need to be picked up and dropped off in the parking lot nearest to the apartment. The parent indicated that district staff in attendance at the IEP team meeting also came to the same conclusion based on their discussion of the student’s unique disability-related needs.

However, following the IEP team meeting the district sent the parent letters dated January 15 and January 17, 2025, indicating that the district refused the parent’s request to pick up and drop off the student in the small parking lot near the student’s apartment. The January 15, 2025, letter states, “Under current policy, the parent or guardian must bring the child to and from the designated bus for specialized transportation.” Both letters indicate that the district’s transportation vendor will not go into the student’s parking lot.

While the district policies and the contract obligations with the district’s transportation provider must be part of the district’s consideration of how it will implement the IEPs of students who require specialized transportation, IEP teams must make individualized decisions based on each student’s unique disability-related needs, not on matters of policy or procedure.

Only one district staff person who participated in the IEP team meeting was made available for a department interview, and they could not remember the specifics of the discussion about the student’s unique disability-related transportation needs. The IEP describes the student’s transportation as “to and from school,” but provides no further specificity or reasons for the team’s determination. As such, it is not possible to confirm the parent’s recollection of what the team discussed regarding the student’s disability-related needs specific to transportation so the department cannot conclude that the district properly developed the student’s IEP regarding specialized transportation. Since the transportation at issue in this complaint does not begin until September 2025, and the district provided the parent written notice of its decisions regarding the parent’s request prior to implementing that portion of the student’s IEP, the district properly provided prior written notice.

Within 30 days of the date of this decision, the district must reconvene the student’s IEP team to properly discuss and document the student’s specialized transportation as needed based on their disability-related needs and revise it, if necessary. The district must submit a copy of the revised IEP to the department within 10 days of the IEP team 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. 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.