Teacher Shook Kindergartner's Shoulders: LAUSD Ordered to Provide Comp Ed

What Happened

Student was a four-to-five-year-old child eligible for special education services due to a speech and language impairment. His IEP provided for 120 minutes per month of speech and language services and 120 minutes per month of early childhood itinerant teaching. For the 2019-2020 school year, Parent enrolled Student in the Expanded Transitional Kindergarten class at 54th Street Elementary School, a class of approximately 24 students that was required by district policy to have two classroom aides — but had none due to staffing issues the administration knew about and failed to fix.

Within the first six weeks of school, two serious incidents occurred. First, sometime between September 3 and 16, 2019, Student was left alone outside his classroom on a dirty rug during naptime without supervision. The school principal found Student sleeping there, took him to his office, and never discussed the incident with Student's teacher or took any corrective action. Second, on September 25, 2019, Student's teacher took him outside the classroom and shook his shoulders repeatedly — hard enough that his head moved back and forth — in front of Student's Grandparent and a school crossing guard who both witnessed the event. After Grandparent reported the incident, Student was taken home. He never returned to 54th Street Elementary. Student missed 33 school days before enrolling at a different school on November 13, 2019. During those 33 days, Student received no general education instruction and none of the special education services his IEP required.

What the District Did Wrong

Using prohibited interventions. California law specifically prohibits school staff from using interventions that are likely to cause physical pain or that leave a student without adequate supervision. The ALJ found that both incidents — the unsupervised outdoor nap and the shoulder-shaking — were prohibited interventions under California Education Code. The teacher's shaking was corroborated by two independent eyewitnesses. The principal's inconsistent and evasive testimony about the nap incident further undermined the district's credibility.

Failing to complete a behavioral emergency report and convene an IEP meeting. When a student with a disability does not have a behavioral intervention plan and an emergency intervention is used, California law requires the school to immediately complete a behavioral emergency report and schedule an IEP team meeting within two days to assess whether a functional behavioral assessment is needed. LAUSD did neither. No behavioral emergency report was ever filed, and no IEP meeting was called — even as Student sat out of school for over a month. The ALJ found this failure left Student's educational program "in limbo" and directly caused educational loss.

Failing to implement the IEP. During the 33 school days Student missed, LAUSD made no effort to provide the services in Student's IEP. The district argued it was "willing and able" to provide services, but offered no evidence it actually tried. The ALJ was clear: the burden to implement the IEP belongs to the district, not the family.

What Was Ordered

1. LAUSD must conduct a psychoeducational evaluation of Student. Parent may delay the start of the evaluation until up to three months after students are permitted to return to school campuses without restriction.
2. LAUSD must provide 16.5 hours of compensatory academic tutoring (one hour for every two missed school days), delivered at home, by videoconference, or on campus. Hours must be used by December 31, 2021.
3. LAUSD must provide 2.5 hours of compensatory speech and language therapy by a licensed speech-language pathologist to make up for missed IEP services. Hours must be used by December 31, 2021.
4. LAUSD must provide 2.5 hours of compensatory early childhood itinerant teaching services to support Student's language goals. Hours must be used by December 31, 2021.

Why This Matters for Parents

1. Physical mistreatment at school can be a denial of FAPE — and OAH has jurisdiction to address it. If a teacher uses a prohibited intervention (like physical restraint or leaving a child unsupervised) and it causes your child to miss school or lose services, that is an educational harm that can be addressed through a due process hearing, even if it might also give rise to other legal claims.

2. Your district is legally required to act after a behavioral emergency — even if you don't ask. California law requires a behavioral emergency report and an IEP meeting within two days whenever an emergency intervention is used on a student without a behavior plan. If your child is restrained or subjected to an aversive technique at school, ask in writing whether a behavioral emergency report was filed and whether an IEP meeting has been scheduled.

3. A district cannot escape responsibility by saying it was "willing" to provide services. LAUSD argued it stood ready to serve Student during the 33 days he was out of school. The ALJ rejected this — the district had an obligation to reach out and make services happen, not wait for the family to come back. If your child is out of school after an incident, document whether the district contacts you to arrange continued services.

4. Expert witnesses must connect their opinions to the student's actual educational experience. Student's psychological expert was given little weight because she was unfamiliar with how Student was doing at his new school, never spoke to his teachers, and could not explain how her PTSD diagnosis translated into specific educational needs. If you retain an expert for a due process hearing, make sure they review school records, speak with teachers, and tie their recommendations directly to the student's educational program — not just general research about a condition.