MARCH 26, 2014Appeals court expands parent rights to ‘stay put’ rule
(Pa.) In what may prove a sweeping expansion of parental rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, a federal appellate court has ordered a school district to pay private tuition costs even while upholding most of a judgment that administrators didn’t violate a student’s rights.
A two-judge panel of the Third Circuit Court of Appeals issued the complex but potentially precedent-setting ruling earlier this month that throws the long-held legal parameters surrounding IDEA’s “stay put” rules into question that in the past limited school liability when parents voluntarily moved a child during a dispute period.
At issue were the educational needs of a female kindergarten student enrolled at a Philadelphia-area school district in the fall of 2006 and persistent claims from her parents that she was learning disabled.
An initial evaluation while she was still in kindergarten found she did not qualify for special education services but testing conducted while she was in first grade found a learning disability in the areas of math, reading, reasoning skills and writing. Officials at the Ridley School District offered
States slow to flex on new accountability systems
(Va.) Despite recent efforts of the Obama administration to provide states more flexibility in developing new accountability systems, school districts across the nation continue to rely on performance measures tied to conventional testing systems, according to a new report.