District Wins on Procedure, But Spectrum Placement Found Not FAPE-Compliant

What Happened

Student was a nine-year-old boy with autism spectrum disorder and a speech-language impairment enrolled in San Ramon Valley Unified School District. His disability profile was severe: he regularly engaged in hair-pulling, biting, kicking, and escape behaviors at school, and was unavailable for instruction roughly 78% of the time due to these behaviors. By fall 2016, he required two adults escorting him at all times and sat separated from classmates behind a partition. Despite these supports, Student had made little academic progress.

Parents believed Student's behavioral problems stemmed from his inability to communicate, and they strongly supported an outside program called Lindamood Bell, which the district had funded through a settlement agreement ending October 31, 2016. When that funding ended, the district began searching for a nonpublic school placement. After contacting roughly a dozen schools — most of which refused Student due to his behavioral intensity — the district ultimately offered placement at Spectrum Center in Oakland at an IEP meeting on November 14, 2016. Parents rejected this offer and filed for due process, arguing the district violated procedural requirements and that the Spectrum placement would not provide Student a free appropriate public education (FAPE).

What the ALJ Found

The ALJ ruled in the district's favor on all procedural issues. On the question of failing to discuss IEP goals at the October and November 2016 meetings: because Parents had already agreed to those goals in May 2016 and no one disputed them, there was no obligation to revisit them at later meetings focused solely on identifying a nonpublic school placement. On the question of failing to name a specific nonpublic school at the October meetings: the ALJ found the district could not legally offer Spectrum before a school representative was present and before Parents had toured the campus — conditions that had not yet been met. On the question of failing to consider parent input: the ALJ found Father participated extensively and his concerns were documented and genuinely considered, even though the district ultimately disagreed with him.

However, the ALJ found that the Spectrum placement offered on November 14, 2016 was not a FAPE. The critical problem: the classroom where Student would be placed had only one credentialed special education teacher — Ms. Hunnicutt — who also served as the credentialed teacher for two other classrooms and as the sole behaviorist for the entire school of 30–40+ students. She could only be present in Student's classroom one to two hours per day. The rest of the day, instruction was overseen by a college graduate without a special education credential, and other staff had only a high school diploma. Under California law, nonpublic schools must have appropriately credentialed teachers leading each classroom. Without that, the school cannot legally be certified — and Student cannot be placed there.

Despite this finding, the ALJ ordered no relief. Student could not be placed at Spectrum because it failed credentialing requirements. The district could not be ordered to fund Lindamood Bell because it is not a California-certified nonpublic school or agency. And compensatory education was denied because the student's legal complaint had not specifically alleged a FAPE denial over a defined period of time — a required element of that type of claim.

What Was Ordered

1. The district's November 14, 2016 offer of placement at Spectrum Center in Oakland was declared not to be a FAPE.
2. All of the student's remaining requests for relief — including reimbursement for parent time, compensatory education, punitive damages, and Lindamood Bell costs — were denied.

Why This Matters for Parents

1. Winning a legal issue does not automatically mean you get a remedy. The ALJ agreed the Spectrum placement was not a FAPE — but Student got nothing because his complaint wasn't structured to ask for compensatory education tied to a specific period of denied FAPE. When filing for due process, work with an advocate or attorney to clearly identify the time period of harm and the specific relief you are requesting.

2. Nonpublic school classrooms must have a credentialed special education teacher present — not just on the roster. If a district places your child at a nonpublic school where the credentialed teacher is responsible for multiple classrooms and is only present an hour or two per day, that placement may violate California law. Ask specifically how much time the credentialed teacher spends in your child's classroom each day.

3. Walking out of an IEP meeting can hurt your case. The ALJ found that Father's early exit from the October 24, 2016 meeting — because the district would not immediately name a placement — prevented meaningful participation. Courts and ALJs may hold a parent's own conduct against them when evaluating whether the district denied parental participation.

4. How you plead your case at the start determines what relief you can get at the end. OAH can only award remedies that match the issues actually raised in the due process complaint. If you believe your child has been denied FAPE over a period of time and needs compensatory services, say so explicitly — with dates — in your complaint.