For one client, the parent of an intellectually disabled teenager, attorneys from Vanaman German LLP successfully tried the matter before an Administrative Law Judge, who held that it is the District’s responsibility to make a specific offer of placement at an IEP. Simply stating that the student would attend a non-public school was not sufficient under the Individuals with Disabilities Act requirements for specificity. Additionally, even though the parents had placed the child at a parochial school, the ALJ correctly held that under Zobrest, this was not violative of the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, nor the Constitution for the State of California. Read the Decision.

The District appealed to the United States District Court for the State of California, which upheld the decision of the ALJ. Our client was awarded reimbursement for the tuition at the private school as well as for related services. In addition, the federal judge held that the decision by the ALJ constituted “stay put” with regard to the following school year as there had been no agreed-to IEP since the initial suit.