On June 23, 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, beginning June 23, 2024, properly developed and implemented the Individualized Education Program (IEP) of a student with a disability regarding paraprofessional and Occupational Therapy (OT) services.
Whether the district properly developed and implemented the IEP of a student with a disability regarding paraprofessional services.
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.
Each student’s IEP team must identify how the student's disability affects the student's involvement and progress in the general curriculum, develop measurable annual goals designed to meet the student's disability-related needs, align special education services to enable the student to advance appropriately toward attaining the annual goals and make progress in the general curriculum, and be educated with nondisabled students. 34 CFR §§ 300.320 and 300.323.
The IEP in effect for the student who is the subject of this complaint at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year was developed on February 19, 2024. The IEP indicated that the student would receive “adult assistance” in the general education classroom and during specials such as art, gym, and music class. The student would also receive “assistance with work completion” to keep the student on task in the classroom. The IEP further describes this as “[The student] will need an adult to assist [them] with all work related activities such as, but not limited to, projects, skills groups, and any age appropriate activities/tasks.” The IEP did not specify that the student required a one-to-one aide.
During the first week of the school year, the district assigned the student a dedicated one-to-one aide, but this person was reassigned to a different classroom as new administrative staff assessed the needs of the students in the district and how to allocate aide support. The student did not have a dedicated one-to-one aide for the next three weeks, but there were sufficient other staff available in the classroom that the student was provided with continuous adult support. The IEP was implemented as written during this time.
The IEP team met on October 4, 2024, and determined that the student required a one-to-one aide throughout the entirety of their school day. Beginning on October 18, 2024, the student had one-to-one aide for their entire school day. This remained in place for the rest of the school year. The district properly developed and implemented the student’s IEP regarding paraprofessional services.
Whether the district properly developed and implemented the IEP of a student with a disability regarding occupational therapy services.
According to their IEP, the student was to receive OT as a related service in the general education environment twice a week for 20 minutes each session. The district was unable to hire an OT to begin the 2024-25 school year and could not provide the services in the student’s IEP. The district sent a letter home to all families of students who were to receive OT services stating that all OT services for this year would be virtual while the district continued to work on hiring an in-person therapist.
During the student’s IEP team meeting on October 4, 2025, the team discussed what OT services would look like when they were able to be provided and determined that virtual services would not be a good fit for the student.
On February 14, 2025, the district sent the parents a letter that detailed that the district was still looking to hire an OT and that the student had not received OT services up to that point. The letter states that when an OT was hired, the IEP team would meet to determine compensatory services.
The district was not able to hire an OT in time to provide services during the 2024-25. The district sent a letter to families on August 18, 2025, outlining the plan for the newly hired OT to visit students during the first two weeks of school to gather information, and for the IEP teams to make determinations regarding compensatory services citing DPI guidance.
The district acknowledges it did not properly implement OT services for this student and other students within the district. The district submitted a corrective action plan to the department to ensure that the IEP teams of all students who did not receive OT services during the 2024-25 school year will meet to determine the appropriate amount of compensatory service owed. Once these determinations are made the district shall submit to the department the results of those discussions and verification that the compensatory services have been implemented.
Within 30 days of the date of this decision the district must reconvene the student’s IEP team to determine the extent of compensatory OT services owed for the failure to implement the student’s IEP during the 2024-25 school year. The district shall provide the department with a copy of the IEP within 10 days of its development.
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 Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (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.
For questions about this information, contact dpispeddata@dpi.wi.gov (608) 266-1781