A New Jersey Administrative Law Judge has ordered that a student with disabilities remain in his private school through the course of a placement dispute.
The case involves a 10-year-old student with Aspergers syndrome who had been placed by his district in an approved private school in 2007. When the family moved, the new district convened an IEP meeting and offered placement in its own self-contained “language and learning class,” which the district said was comparable to the program provided at the private school. The judge reviewed the class descriptions—including class size, student-teacher ratio, teacher training and credentials, frequency of instruction and intensity of related services—and found that the program offered by the district was not comparable. The district program was more academically oriented, whereas the private program was oriented to social skills and small group instruction.
Because the program at the private school was the last agreed upon placement, and the district did not offer a comparable program, the private school is the stay-put placement pending the outcome of the due process hearing.
The stay-put provision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) requires that a child remain in his or her current educational placement pending the outcome of a due process hearing. By preserving the status quo, the child’s program remains stable and consistent until proceedings under IDEA are finalized.
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