Burbank USD Ordered to Pay $36,910 After Failing Autistic Preschooler on Behavior and Speech

What Happened

Student was a four-year-old boy with moderate autism, severe expressive and receptive language delays, and significant behavioral and safety concerns, including a tendency to elope and put non-food items in his mouth. Before turning three, he received early intervention services through a regional center. His parents privately arranged for intensive applied behavior analysis (ABA) therapy through a provider called B.I.G. Solutions, private speech therapy, and enrolled him in a general education preschool with a one-to-one ABA aide. In early 2018, Student was also admitted to a highly structured 12-week partial hospitalization program at UCLA, which conducted its own thorough assessments and issued detailed discharge recommendations.

Burbank conducted its initial special education assessment in February 2018 and held IEP meetings in March 2018, June 2018, and January 2019. Parents rejected all three IEP offers and continued Student's private program, contending the district failed to offer appropriate behavior goals, a behavior support plan, adequate speech therapy, extended school year services tailored to Student's needs, and placement in a general education preschool. Burbank filed its own due process case in April 2019 defending its February 2019 IEP offer. The two cases were consolidated and heard together over six hearing days in May 2019.

What the District Did Wrong

The ALJ found that Burbank denied Student a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in several significant ways across all three IEPs, and this carried into its February 2019 IEP as well.

No meaningful behavior goals or behavior support plan. Student's IEPs listed safety concerns — bolting, elopement, and mouthing non-food objects — in the baseline section, but none of the IEPs included a goal directly addressing these safety behaviors, nor a behavior support plan. The district argued that behavioral supports could be "embedded" in the program, but the ALJ found this was hollow without a concrete goal to drive and measure those supports. UCLA's functional behavior assessment had proposed three specific behavior goals; Burbank never addressed any of them.

Insufficient speech therapy. Burbank offered two 30-minute sessions of speech therapy per week — one individual and one group pull-out — across all three IEPs. The evidence showed three individual sessions per week was appropriate for a nonverbal child with Student's severity of deficits. The ALJ found group speech therapy was also inappropriate at that time because Student lacked the attention and language to benefit from a group setting. Burbank was unable to provide a convincing clinical justification for its lower offer.

Extended school year services were predetermined. The district's ESY offers were not individualized to Student's specific needs. UCLA's discharge report had specifically noted that continuing services to prevent regression were "critical," yet Burbank did not tailor its ESY duration to account for this. Predetermined, cookie-cutter ESY offers violate IDEA's requirement that services be individualized.

Failure to consider outside assessment. After Mother provided Burbank with UCLA's discharge report in June 2018, the district never actually considered it in developing the January 2019 or February 2019 IEPs. This was a procedural violation that carried substantive consequences.

Unclear written offers. Each IEP lacked sufficiently clear written offers of placement and services, making it impossible for Parents to meaningfully evaluate what was being proposed.

The district did prevail on several issues. The ALJ found Burbank did not need to provide full-time one-to-one ABA aide services or place Student in a general education classroom. The evidence showed Student's needs were too significant for general education to be the least restrictive environment — he required the structure, small class size, high staff-to-student ratio, and individualized programming that only a special day class could provide.

What Was Ordered

1. Burbank shall reimburse Parents $36,910.17 for the private preschool tuition, private speech therapy costs, B.I.G. ABA services paid out of pocket, and mileage for transportation to all private placements and services.
2. Within 60 calendar days of the decision, Burbank shall hold a new IEP team meeting to reconsider its FAPE offer, including full consideration of the UCLA discharge report, individualized extended school year duration, appropriate behavior goals and a behavior support plan, and one-to-one aide services for any period Student is mainstreamed into general education.

Why This Matters for Parents

1. A safety concern in the "baseline" section of an IEP is not the same as a plan to address it. If your child has bolting, elopement, or other safety behaviors, the IEP must include a specific measurable goal and a behavior support plan — not just a note that the behavior exists. Vague promises of "embedded supports" are not sufficient.

2. Bring documentation of your child's private services to every IEP meeting, and follow up in writing if the district doesn't address it. In this case, the UCLA discharge report sat unreviewed for over six months. Parents should hand-deliver important outside assessments, confirm receipt in writing, and explicitly ask at the next IEP meeting how the team considered those findings.

3. Group therapy is not automatically equivalent to individual therapy. For a nonverbal child who cannot yet attend or communicate in a group setting, offering group speech sessions instead of individual ones can be a denial of FAPE. Ask the district to explain clinically why a group format is appropriate for your child's specific profile.

4. Extended school year services must be individualized — the district cannot offer a standard package to everyone. If outside professionals have documented that your child is at risk of regression without continued services, that documentation should directly shape the ESY offer. A predetermined, one-size-fits-all ESY offer violates the law.