California OAH special education order · August 23, 2016
Order for Supplemental Evidence on Motion for Stay Put
OAH Case No. 2016080399 · ALJ Kara Hatfield
OAH deferred ruling on Student's opposed stay put motion and ordered District to file complete, fully legible copies of two IEPs. The copies submitted had missing pages, unreadable boxes, and cut-off text.
Summary
Student moved for stay put to keep Student in a special education center or a comparable special school while the dispute was pending, and District opposed. Before ruling, the ALJ ordered District to file complete, legible copies of the November 19, 2014 and December 9, 2015 IEPs by August 26, 2016. The copies submitted had boxes too dark to read, text cut off inside scrolling boxes, and missing pages. OAH needed the full documents to decide the motion.
Why it matters
Stay put turns on the exact text of the last agreed-upon IEP, so parties should file complete, readable copies. Printouts of electronic IEPs can hide text inside scrolling boxes, and that can delay a stay put ruling.
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. 2016080399 v. ORDER FOR SUPPLEMENTAL
EVIDENCE ON MOTION FOR STAY
LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL PUT
DISTRICT.
On August 9, 2016, Student filed a motion for stay put, requesting that Los Angeles Unified School District be ordered to maintain Student’s placement in a special education center or a comparable special school during the pendency of the dispute. On August 12, 2016, District filed an opposition to the motion for stay put. Additional information is required before a ruling may be made on the pleadings.
ORDER
On or before 5:00 p.m. on August 26, 2016, District is ordered to file complete, fully legible copies of the November 19, 2014 and December 9, 2015 individualized education programs. Specifically, the documents must allow clear visibility of all boxes and all content within those boxes. For example, the copy of the November 19, 2014 IEP that Student submitted as Exhibit B has boxes on pages identified as 25, 26, 27 and 28 of 32 that are too black to read the pre-printed text within the box, and the typed content of boxes on page 25 of 32 appears to have further text that would be visible only by scrolling down within the box on a computer screen.1 The copies of the December 9, 2015 IEP submitted by both Student and District have a box on what is identified as page 21 of 28 of the IEP that appears to have further text that would be visible only by scrolling down within the box on a The last line of content in Step A reads, “To ensure the physical safety of the student, he requires”. There is no punctuation at the end of the line and the context suggests there is further text that cannot be seen on the physical printout of the IEP. The last line of content in Step B reads, “ . . . have been developed to serve students functioning within the severe range of intellectual disability,”. The comma at the end of the line suggests there is further text that cannot be seen on the physical printout of the IEP.
computer screen.2 The copy of the December 9, 2015 IEP District attached to its opposition does not contain what would probably be identified as pages 23, 24, 26, and 27 of 28.
District must provide OAH with complete copies of these IEP’s containing all pages and revealing the entire content of boxes within the IEP’s. It is respectfully requested that District submit these documents by e-filing them to assure clarity of the images transmitted.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
DATE: August 23, 2016
KARA HATFIELD
Administrative Law Judge Office of Administrative Hearings The last two lines of content in Step A read, “ . . . To ensure the physical safety of the student, he requires placement in a setting with a small student-staff ratio”. There is no punctuation at the end of the line and the context suggests there is further text that cannot be seen on the physical printout of the IEP.