Dyslexic Student Denied FAPE When High School Refused to Teach Reading and Spelling

What Happened

Student is a bright ninth-grader with dyslexia and dysgraphia — a specific learning disability that severely affects reading, spelling, and writing. Despite testing at very high cognitive levels, Student could not read or spell at grade level and had never been able to do so since kindergarten. He had developed workarounds like guessing words from context and having his father review all written work before turning it in, but these coping strategies were becoming less effective as schoolwork grew more complex. A private psychologist (Dr. Sandoval) conducted a thorough assessment and diagnosed him with a specific learning disability with impairments in reading, written expression, and spelling, as well as a developmental coordination disorder affecting handwriting.

When Student transferred from Brentwood Union School District to Liberty Union High School District for ninth grade, the transition was poorly handled. The elementary district never held the required transition IEP meeting before Student moved on. Parents did not consent to the eligibility determination until July 29, 2016 — one business day before Liberty's school year began — and Liberty did not receive that consent until August 2, 2016. Liberty scheduled an IEP meeting for August 19, 2016, as quickly as schedules allowed. However, the IEP developed at that meeting set unmeasurable goals and offered a "Tutorial Support" class that functioned essentially as study hall — no actual reading, spelling, or writing instruction was provided. Parents refused to sign the IEP due to concerns about the goals, so Student received no special education services at all during his entire first semester of high school.

What the District Did Wrong

The ALJ found that Liberty's IEP fundamentally failed Student in several ways. The core problem was Liberty's mistaken belief that high schools are not required to teach basic skills — that once a student reaches high school, special education only needs to help students "access the curriculum" through accommodations like spell-check and audio books, not actually remediate deficits. The law does not support this position.

Inadequate goals: The spelling goal was actually a paragraph-writing goal that measured spelling through assignments corrected with spell-check — so it never measured whether Student could actually spell independently. The oral reading fluency goal did not specify what grade level the reading passages would be, making it unmeasurable. The "reading" goal was really just a vocabulary memorization exercise — Student was given three lists of ten words each over three months, which did nothing to address his inability to decode unfamiliar words.

No actual instruction: The Tutorial Support class Liberty described as specialized academic instruction was, in the ALJ's words, "Study Hall with a different name." No part of it was designed to address Student's unique needs in reading, spelling, or writing. Liberty personnel openly testified that remediation of basic skills was not offered at the high school level — a position the ALJ found directly contradicts federal and state law.

Untrained staff: Neither Student's English teacher, the special education coordinator who wrote his goals, nor the special education teacher who provided his "specialized" instruction had been trained in methods for teaching students with dyslexia. The district's misunderstanding of its legal obligations flowed directly from this lack of training.

The ALJ ruled in the district's favor on one narrow issue: Liberty was not responsible for failing to hold a timely transitional IEP, because Parents had not consented to the eligibility determination until the day before school started, and Liberty acted promptly once it received notice.

What Was Ordered

1. Liberty must amend Student's IEP to include one hour per day of specialized academic instruction in reading and spelling using the Orton-Gillingham or Slingerland method.
2. Liberty must fund a bank of 152 hours of compensatory tutoring (one hour for each school day FAPE was denied, from August 19, 2016 through May 18, 2017), at a cost not to exceed $85 per hour. Parents may choose a Slingerland program or another research-based, in-person reading/spelling/writing program.
3. Student's 10th-grade English teacher, the special education teacher providing his instruction, and the staff member writing his goals must each complete 15 hours of training in Orton-Gillingham or Slingerland methods and 10 hours of training on reading and spelling disabilities in adolescents — all completed by October 31, 2017, by an independent expert.
4. All district special education personnel must receive at least 3 hours of training on the legal requirement to address high school students' unique educational needs, provided by an independent special education law expert by October 31, 2017.
5. Liberty must fund a private transition assessment (up to $6,000, including the assessor attending an IEP meeting) to help plan Student's path toward college and his goal of becoming an engineer.
6. Requests for reimbursement for Dr. White's assessment services, Hope Academy tutoring, and a private assistive technology assessment were denied because Student did not meet the burden of proof connecting those expenses to the FAPE violations at issue.

Why This Matters for Parents

1. High schools cannot legally refuse to teach basic skills. The district argued that once a student enters high school, special education only needs to provide "access" through accommodations — not actual instruction in reading or spelling. The ALJ rejected this completely. If your child has unmet foundational deficits in reading or spelling, the district must address them regardless of grade level, until the student graduates or turns 22.

2. A goal that can only be met using spell-check does not measure your child's ability to spell. If your child's IEP goals are measured using work samples that go through technology tools like spell-check before submission, those goals are not measuring what they claim to measure. Goals must measure the actual skill they are targeting.

3. A class labeled "specialized academic instruction" must actually provide specialized instruction. The name of a class or service on an IEP does not determine whether it meets legal standards — what matters is what happens inside it. If your child's "specialized" class is really just homework time without targeted instruction in their area of disability, it likely does not meet FAPE requirements.

4. Refusing to sign an inadequate IEP does not waive your child's right to compensatory education. The ALJ found that even if Parents had consented immediately to the August 2016 IEP, the IEP still would not have provided FAPE — so Student was owed compensatory services for the full period. A district cannot escape its obligation to provide an appropriate program simply because parents withheld consent to an inadequate one.

5. Staff training can be ordered as a remedy for systemic failures. When a district's violations stem from staff not understanding the law — as happened here — a hearing officer can order the district to train its staff as part of the remedy. This benefits not just your child but potentially other students with disabilities in the district.