California OAH special education order · March 14, 2014
Order Granting District's Motion to Compel Observation
OAH Case No. 2014010895 · ALJ June R. Lehrman
OAH granted District a two-hour observation of Student at her private residential placement because Student seeks reimbursement and continued placement there, triggering District's right to observe under Education Code section 56329(d).
This case went to decision
Student v. Garden Grove Unified School District: Garden Grove Unified must reimburse $23,718.68 and fund residential treatment after three IEPs failed to meet student's mental health needs. (2014)
Summary
District asked OAH to order that it be allowed to observe Student for two hours at Oak Grove Residential Treatment Facility, where Parent had placed her privately. Student opposed. Student argued the motion was untimely and only a makeweight for District's motion to continue, and that District had already observed Student there during its December 2012 to January 2013 triennial assessment. OAH granted the motion because Student's complaint seeks reimbursement and continued placement at Oak Grove, and Education Code section 56329(d) gives the district a right to observe a proposed publicly funded placement and the student in it. A prior observation during an assessment does not cancel that right.
Why it matters
When parents seek public funding for a private placement, the district has a statutory right to observe the student there. A past observation or a pending continuance request will not defeat that right, so families should plan for it.
Key authority cited
- Ed. Code § 56329, subd. (d)
Topics
Full text of the order
Published text of the OAH order. Page headers and numbers from the original PDF have been dropped.
BEFORE THE
OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
In the Matter of:
PARENT ON BEHALF OF STUDENT, OAH CASE NO. 2014010895
v. ORDER GRANTING DISTRICT’S
MOTION TO COMPEL
GARDEN GROVE UNIFIED SCHOOL OBSERVATION
DISTRICT.
On March 10, 2014, Garden Grove Unified School District (District) filed a Motion to Compel Observation (Motion), seeking an order allowing it to observe Student for two hours, at her private placement. On March 13, 2014, Student filed a response. On March 13, 2014, District filed a reply. On March 14, 2014, Student filed a response to District’s reply.
As discussed below, the Motion is granted.
APPLICABLE LAW AND DISCUSSION
Education Code section 56329, subdivision (d) states: “If a parent or guardian proposes a publicly financed placement of the pupil in a nonpublic school, the public education agency shall have an opportunity to observe the proposed placement and the pupil in the proposed placement, if the pupil has already been unilaterally placed in the nonpublic school by the parent or guardian.”
Here, Student has been parentally placed at Oak Grove Residential Treatment Facility (Oak Grove). Student’s due process hearing request (complaint) alleges that District denied Student a free appropriate public education (FAPE), and it requests remedies of reimbursement and continued placement at Oak Grove. Thus, Education Code section 56329, subdivision (d) applies. District is entitled to observe Student at that placement.
Student’s responses to District’s Motion argue that: (1) District’s Motion is untimely, and is merely a makeweight for District’s concurrently-filed Motion to Continue the hearing in this matter; and (2) District has already observed Student at Oak Grove as part of its triennial assessment of Student in December2012-January 2013. Student’s arguments are rejected. The Motion to Continue will be addressed by separate Order and does not render the current Motion untimely nor unmeritorious. The triennial assessment notwithstanding, Education Code section 56329, subdivision (d) clearly gives District the right to observe a placement when funding for it is requested, as in the complaint.
ORDER
District’ Motion to Compel Observation is granted. District may conduct a two-hour observation of Student in her placement at Oak Grove.
DATE: March 14, 2014 /s/
JUNE R. LEHRMAN
Administrative Law Judge Office of Administrative Hearings