District Wins: Parent's Refusal to Consent to Assessment Blocked FAPE Claims

What Happened

Student is a 17-year-old young man eligible for special education under the category of Other Health Impairment due to ADHD. He last attended Carlsbad Unified School District (District) during the 2005-2006 school year, his 9th grade year. After that, his parent chose to home school him. The District was required to conduct a triennial reassessment of Student by May 2006, and it sent assessment plans to Parent beginning as early as September 2005. Parent repeatedly declined to consent to those plans, proposed her own modifications, or simply did not respond. Because Parent would not give consent, the District could not conduct the required assessments, could not update Student's IEP, and therefore could not make a new placement offer before the 2006-2007 school year began.

Parent eventually consented to an assessment plan in March 2007. The District then conducted a thorough psychoeducational evaluation, an academic achievement assessment, and a speech and language assessment, and held an IEP meeting on May 21, 2007. Parent attended but was dissatisfied that District assessors did not provide grade-level equivalent scores — they provided standard scores, scaled scores, and percentile ranks instead. The District funded an independent educational evaluation (IEE) from Foundations for Reading and Learning, which identified some written vocabulary and grammar deficits. Those findings led to two new written language goals and a recommendation for speech-language therapy at a follow-up IEP meeting in November 2007. For the 2008-2009 school year, Parent again did not consent to a new academic assessment and did not provide sufficient work samples, so District again could not update Student's program.

What the ALJ Found

The ALJ ruled in the District's favor on every issue. The central finding was straightforward: a parent who wants special education services for their child must allow the district to assess that child. Because Parent blocked assessments for the 2006-2007 school year, the District legally could not develop a new IEP or make a placement offer. The ALJ found the District had sent multiple valid assessment plans, made reasonable efforts to obtain consent, and had even filed a due process request to compel assessment — which it later withdrew after learning Parent had filed a private school affidavit confirming home schooling. Under federal regulations, once a student is home schooled, a district cannot even file to compel assessment if a parent refuses consent.

On the 2007-2008 assessment claims, the ALJ found District assessed Student in all required areas. The fact that an IEE later identified written language deficits did not mean the original assessment was deficient — District's own testing actually showed Student scoring above average in writing at the time of the May 2007 IEP. On parental participation, the ALJ found that failing to provide grade-level equivalents was not a FAPE violation. District provided standard scores with explanations, and those scores were sufficient to identify Student's needs and build meaningful IEP goals. District also funded an IEE specifically so Parent could obtain the grade-level comparisons she wanted from an independent source.

On the claim that District had secretly altered Student's IEP, the ALJ found the opposite: a different version of the document had been accidentally printed from the district's computer and given to Parent in error, but it was never used as the official IEP. No material alterations were made. Finally, on compensatory education, the ALJ found Student had not proven a FAPE denial and had also presented no evidence about the availability, suitability, or cost of the nonpublic schools he was requesting.

What Was Ordered

1. Student's requests for relief were denied in their entirety.
2. The District prevailed on all issues heard and decided.

Why This Matters for Parents

1. Refusing to consent to assessments can eliminate your child's right to services. The law is clear: if you want your child to receive special education, you must allow the district to evaluate them using their own staff. Blocking assessments — even if you disagree with the district's approach — can legally excuse the district from providing an IEP or placement. If you disagree with how an assessment is designed, request an IEE after the fact rather than refusing consent upfront.

2. Districts are not required to provide grade-level equivalent scores. Standard scores, scaled scores, and percentile ranks are legally sufficient to describe a student's present levels of performance. If you want to understand where your child falls in terms of grade-level skills, you may need to ask for those numbers to be explained in context, or request an IEE from an outside evaluator.

3. Home schooling your child changes the legal landscape significantly. Once you file a private school affidavit, federal law limits what a district can do if you refuse assessments — including preventing the district from filing to compel evaluation. This protection for home-schooling families cuts both ways: it also limits what services the district is obligated to provide.

4. Compensatory education claims require concrete evidence. If you believe your child is owed compensatory education, you must present specific evidence: what school or program is appropriate, why it fits your child's needs, and what it costs. Naming a school without supporting testimony or documentation is not enough to win this remedy.