A New Jersey Administrative Law judge has ruled that a teen with multiple disabilities may not return to his home district to complete high school.
The case involves a 16 year-old student with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder and other conditions who had been placed in a private school. The teen’s mother petitioned her local district to allow her son to return to district to complete his senior year. The district maintained that the private school was appropriate because it offers support, structure, supervision and therapeutic intervention not available in the public school.
The student, who has superior verbal and intellectual skills, was referred to an out-of-district placement in 5th grade due to academic, social and behavioral difficulties. In 9th grade, he returned to the local district, attending a combination of in-class resource, pullout resource and regular education classes. After a brief period of satisfactory behavior, he began failing classes and experiencing the same type of academic and behavior problems he had shown initially. In 10th grade, he was placed on home instruction, and in 11th grade, he was placed in another private school.
The district argued that the teen’s behavior: missed detention, unexcused absences, inappropriate language, inappropriate gestures to staff, bullying and sexual harassment, in combination with his academic needs, required a placement that offered small classes, structure, behavior modification and academic support. They further argued that if the student were placed in the public school, he would not graduate on time, whereas if he completes his current program at the private school, he could receive a diploma in June 2011. He plans to attend college in the fall.
Based on the evidence, the judge concluded that the teen’s placement at the private school did not deprive him of a free, appropriate public education, and denied the petition to return to the home district.
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