A New Jersey Administrative Law Judge recently ruled that a family in which the father worked overseas was entitled to have their son’s special education services paid for by the Hunterdon County school district in which they maintained an apartment.
The case involves a student, now aged 21, with cerebral palsy, spastic quadriplegia, and intellectual disabilities who had been placed by the district in a private residential treatment center since 2004. Funding was never challenged until 2013 when the district, which funded only the educational component of the placement, challenged the family’s residency. They charged that both parents had moved out of New Jersey and were living and working in the Netherlands. The district sought tuition reimbursement from the parents in excess of $277,000 for a five-year period beginning in 2009.
The judge, in reviewing the parents’ driver’s licenses, voting records, tax records, travel history, work visas, and mailing address, as well as school correspondences and communications, found that the parents were, in fact, domiciled in the district for the five-year time period in questions and had at no time sought to hide their residency from the district. The judge ruled that the district, therefore, was responsible for special education tuition. OAL 10161-13
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