Charter School Secretly Removed Autistic Student from Classroom Without Parent Notice

What Happened

Student was a seven-year-old child diagnosed with autism who enrolled in kindergarten at Community Montessori Charter School, operated under the Dehesa Elementary School District and Element Education, Inc. His parents chose this school specifically because it offered a Learning Center — a real classroom with a credentialed teacher, up to 24 peers, and a structured Montessori program. Between 95 and 99 percent of all students at Community Montessori attended the Learning Center. Parent would not have enrolled Student there at all if he could not participate in the classroom alongside his peers, which she believed was essential for his social development.

Student struggled behaviorally in the Learning Center from the start. He had difficulty working independently, threw materials, hit and bit his teacher, and disrupted the class despite multiple interventions. In early February 2016, school administrators met privately — without including the special education director or the parents — and decided to remove Student from the Learning Center entirely and place him in a full-time home study program. A school administrator told parents about this decision the next day. Parents were shocked and did not agree. The following day, at a scheduled IEP meeting, parents voiced their strong opposition, but the decision had already been made. No written notice was ever provided before the change was carried out.

What the District Did Wrong

The districts argued that Student's official placement had always been the independent home study program, and that the Learning Center was just an optional add-on — meaning they could remove him from it without any IEP process or parental consent. The ALJ rejected this argument. The evidence showed that the Learning Center was Student's actual educational placement: it was where he spent the majority of his school day, where a credentialed teacher provided instruction, where IEP supports were designed to be implemented, and where Student's behavior issues actually occurred. Calling it "optional" on paper did not change the reality of how it functioned.

The ALJ found two clear violations. First, the districts unilaterally changed Student's placement without parental consent. The decision was made in a private meeting between the school director, executive director, and teacher — parents were not included and were only informed after the decision was final. Even though parents were allowed to speak at the IEP meeting the next day, the placement change had already been predetermined. Second, the districts failed to provide prior written notice before changing Student's placement. Under federal law, a school must give parents written notice explaining any proposed change to placement before making it — not after. Verbal notification the day before an IEP meeting does not satisfy this requirement. Together, these violations significantly blocked parents from meaningfully participating in decisions about their child's education, which the ALJ found constituted a denial of FAPE.

What Was Ordered

1. Districts must reimburse parents $500 for the cost of the Headway Social Skills program, which parents privately funded to give Student peer socialization he was denied by being removed from the classroom.
2. Districts must contract with a non-public agency to provide Student 14 hours of group speech-language therapy focused on pragmatic (social) language skills, to be used within one year.
3. Districts must contract with a non-public agency to provide Student 28 hours of specialized academic instruction, to be used within one year.
4. Districts must contract with an outside agency to provide 10 hours of IDEA training for all staff involved in Student's education, covering parental participation rights, prior written notice requirements, and proper procedures for changing a student's placement. The training provider must be someone who has never previously worked with the districts.
5. Requests for reimbursement of fees paid to Pediatric Therapeutics, and for additional social skills compensatory hours, were denied.

Why This Matters for Parents

1. What a school calls your child's "placement" on paper is not always what it actually is. If your child spends most of their school day in a particular classroom with a credentialed teacher, that classroom is likely their placement — regardless of how the school labels it in contracts or handbooks. Schools cannot use paperwork to sidestep IDEA protections.

2. Your school cannot remove your child from their classroom program without your consent and written notice. Even if a school has a disciplinary policy in a parent handbook, special education law takes precedence. Before any change in placement, the school must give you written notice explaining why, what alternatives were considered, and what your rights are.

3. A decision made before your IEP meeting is predetermination — and it's illegal. If school staff have already decided what will happen before sitting down with you, your participation in the IEP meeting is meaningless. This case confirms that letting parents voice concerns after a decision is made does not satisfy the IDEA's requirement for genuine parental participation.

4. If your district removes your child from a placement without proper process, you may be able to recover costs for services you had to find on your own. Parents here were reimbursed for social skills programming they privately arranged to fill the gap created by the improper removal. Keep records of what you spend and why — it matters.