Cabrillo USD Denied FAPE to Brain Tumor Survivor, Ordered to Reimburse $75K+ in Private School Tuition and Assessments

A nine-year-old brain tumor survivor with traumatic brain injury and other health impairment eligibility was denied a FAPE by Cabrillo Unified School District, which repeatedly failed to assess her, offer appropriate IEPs, or address her documented behavioral, social-emotional, occupational therapy, and medical needs from 2013 through 2015. Parents privately placed their daughter at Charles Armstrong School and then Arbor Bay Academy, both of which the ALJ found appropriate. Cabrillo was ordered to reimburse over $75,000 in private school tuition, transportation, and independent assessment costs.

What Happened

Student was a nine-year-old girl who had been diagnosed at age two with an aggressive brain tumor. Surgery removed approximately 25% of her frontal lobe, followed by intensive chemotherapy and other treatments. The treatment left her with significant deficits in fine and gross motor skills, attention, behavior, and social-emotional development, as well as a 46% elevated risk of pediatric stroke. Her private kindergarten school told the family it could not meet her needs, and her medical team at UCSF urged the family to seek special education services from their local public school district — Cabrillo Unified.

Beginning in March 2013, Parents made repeated written requests to both Cabrillo and the neighboring Belmont Redwood Shores School District for assessment and an IEP. Cabrillo repeatedly failed to respond, deflected responsibility to Belmont, and did not hold its first IEP team meeting until October 4, 2013 — seven months after the first request. Even then, the IEP was built solely on Belmont's limited psychoeducational assessment and addressed only basic academics, ignoring Student's well-documented needs in behavior, social-emotional development, occupational therapy, gross motor development, and her serious medical risk of stroke. Parents privately enrolled Student at Charles Armstrong School in summer 2013 and later at Arbor Bay Academy in December 2014. Despite four IEP meetings over two years, Cabrillo never offered a program that comprehensively addressed Student's needs — leading Parents to file a due process complaint in March 2015.

What the District Did Wrong

Failed child find obligations from March 2013 onward. Cabrillo was on notice that Student lived within its boundaries and had extensive documented disabilities as early as March 5, 2013, but did not initiate contact with Parents or offer to assess Student until October 2013 — more than seven months later. This delay was a clear violation of its child find duty.
Failed to provide prior written notice when refusing to assess. When Cabrillo deflected Parents' March, April, May, and June 2013 assessment requests — directing them to Belmont instead — it never issued the required prior written notice explaining its refusal. This procedural violation impeded Parents' ability to participate in the decision-making process and delayed Student's IEP by months.
Conducted incomplete assessments across all relevant time periods. Cabrillo relied solely on Belmont's psychoeducational assessment at the October 2013 IEP and failed to formally assess Student in behavior, social-emotional development, occupational therapy, adaptive physical education, or gross motor skills until late 2014 or later — despite clear evidence of need in all of these areas from the very beginning.
Failed to develop adequate IEP goals. The October 2013, March 2014, and November 2014 IEPs all contained academic goals with present levels that were nothing more than vague test score ranges (e.g., "Broad Math Scores — Low Range"), which did not identify what Student could actually do, establish a baseline, or relate to the specific skills being targeted. No goals addressed behavior, social-emotional development, or gross motor skills across all relevant IEP periods.
Failed to address behavioral and social-emotional needs. Cabrillo never formally assessed Student's behavior or social-emotional functioning and included no behavioral supports, positive behavioral interventions, coping skills instruction, social skills goals, or counseling services in any IEP until the January 2015 IEP — and even then, the supports were inadequate.
Failed to address Student's documented medical risk of stroke. Despite knowing Student had a 46% elevated stroke risk, none of Cabrillo's IEPs identified the risk, described warning signs, assigned any staff member to monitor Student's neurological status, or created a protocol for emergency transport to a pediatric stroke center within the critical one-hour window. No related health services or accommodations were provided for this life-threatening condition.
Failed to offer adaptive physical education. Despite knowing of Student's gross motor deficits from at least May 2013, Cabrillo did not conduct an adaptive physical education assessment or offer APE services until the March 2015 IEP amendment — denying Student a FAPE in the November 2014 and January 2015 IEPs on this basis.
Failed to address occupational therapy needs comprehensively. While Cabrillo eventually provided limited OT services beginning in March 2014, it never addressed Student's vestibular and auditory processing needs, which significantly impacted her alertness, attention, and stamina.

Note: The ALJ found that Cabrillo did NOT predetermine placements, did NOT fail to consider a continuum of placement options, and DID make adequate formal written placement offers in October 2013 and March 2014. Parents did not prevail on claims related to physical therapy, assistive technology, or fine motor goals.

What Was Ordered

Within 45 days of the decision, Cabrillo Unified School District was ordered to reimburse Student's Parents for the following:

$33,527.80 — tuition at Charles Armstrong School from July 2013 through November 2014.
$3,923.26 — mileage reimbursement for transportation to and from Charles Armstrong School (226 school days × 31-mile round trip at IRS rate).
$25,095.00 — tuition at Arbor Bay Academy from December 2014 through the end of the 2014–2015 school year.
$2,960.10 — mileage reimbursement for transportation to and from Arbor Bay Academy (132 school days × 39-mile round trip at IRS rate).
$6,925.00 — costs of three independent neuropsychological assessments conducted by Dr. Ambler (April 2013, October 2014, and January 2015).
$1,762.00 — costs of behavioral assessment from Therapeutic Learning Center.
$1,200.00 — costs of behavior intervention services from Therapeutic Learning Center.

Total ordered: approximately $75,393.16.

Why This Matters for Parents

Put your assessment requests in writing — every time. This case shows that verbal requests or informal contacts are not enough. Parents made contact through a family friend, through their private school, and by phone — and Cabrillo used the ambiguity to delay for seven months. Each new written request to the district (March, April, May, June 2013) strengthened the child find and prior written notice claims. Document every request with a date-stamped letter or email.
A district cannot escape its duties by pointing to another district. Cabrillo tried to place responsibility on Belmont because Student attended a private school there. The ALJ rejected this. The district where a child lives is responsible for child find and offering a FAPE, even when the child attends a private school in a neighboring district. Know which district is your district of residence and hold them accountable.
Your child's private placement does not need to be perfect — it just needs to be appropriate. Cabrillo argued that Parents failed to provide proper notice and that the private placements were not equivalent to a public school program. The ALJ disagreed. Charles Armstrong School and Arbor Bay Academy both addressed Student's actual needs with small class sizes, individualized instruction, and behavioral supports. When a district fails to offer a FAPE, an appropriate private placement — even one chosen unilaterally — can be reimbursed.
IEP goals must be grounded in real baseline data, not just test score ranges. The ALJ found that goals stating "Broad Math Scores — Low Range" as the present level of performance were "patently deficient" because no teacher could use them to know where to start instruction. Push back at IEP meetings when present levels are vague or when goals are not connected to something measurable your child can currently do. This is one of the most common — and most consequential — IEP defects.
If your child has serious medical needs, those needs must be in the IEP. The ALJ found that Cabrillo's complete failure to address Student's 46% elevated stroke risk — no staff training, no monitoring protocol, no emergency transport plan, no related health services — denied her a FAPE. If your child has a medical condition that requires monitoring or emergency response at school, insist that the IEP include a written health plan, identify responsible personnel, and describe what will happen in an emergency. The school nurse can be a resource, but the plan must be in the IEP.