Charter School Home Program Found to Provide FAPE for Student with Autism

Parents of a 15-year-old student with autism filed a due process complaint against two Springs Charter schools — Empire Springs and Citrus Springs — claiming their home-based Journeys program denied their child a free appropriate public education and seeking reimbursement for unilateral placement at New Vista, a private school for students with autism. The ALJ found that both charter schools provided an appropriate placement and program, that the student's IEP goals and services were reasonably designed to produce educational benefit, and that Parents had voluntarily and intentionally disenrolled their son before filing the complaint. All three issues were decided in favor of the districts.

What Happened

Student was a 15-year-old ninth grader eligible for special education under the category of Autism. For several years, Student attended the Journeys home-based program offered by Empire Springs and then Citrus Springs Charter Schools, two separate charter school local educational agencies that support parents who choose to teach their children at home. Student's IEP provided specialized academic instruction, speech-language therapy targeting pragmatics and social skills, and a variety of accommodations. Student performed at grade level academically, participated in on-campus enrichment classes with typical peers, and received consistent progress reports showing incremental improvement in his social language goals. Parents — who served as Student's primary teacher under the Journeys model — were involved in every IEP meeting and signed off on each IEP.

In spring 2020, Parents quietly decided to enroll Student at New Vista, a private nonpublic school serving students with autism, for ninth grade. They completed a formal letter of intent in March 2020 requesting that Citrus Springs disenroll Student on the last day of school, returned all school materials including Student's Chromebook, and told staff they were sending Student to a private school. After Student was accepted to and enrolled at New Vista, Parents' attorney sent a letter in August 2020 claiming that Citrus Springs had failed to provide a FAPE and demanding tuition reimbursement. Parents then filed a due process complaint in September 2020, arguing that both charter schools had offered inappropriate placements and programs, failed to offer extended school year services, and that Citrus Springs remained responsible as Student's current school district.

What the ALJ Found

The ALJ found in favor of both charter schools on all three issues. On placement, the ALJ applied the Rachel H. four-factor balancing test and concluded that Student received meaningful educational and social benefit from the general education Journeys program combined with weekly specialized academic instruction and speech therapy. Student earned good grades, made consistent academic progress, and was well-liked by peers in on-campus enrichment classes. The ALJ gave little weight to evidence from New Vista administrators, finding their testimony frequently inconsistent, illogical, and contradicted by their own teachers' written progress reports showing Student arrived on time, completed work, and participated appropriately.

On services, the ALJ found that the IEP goals in math, writing, conversational skills, perspective-taking, and nonliteral language were appropriate and well-matched to Student's documented needs. The speech-language pathologist's professional judgment that pull-out therapy — rather than a daily classroom-based social skills program — was appropriate for Student was credited over the opinions of Parent's experts, who were not licensed speech-language pathologists. The choice between these approaches was deemed a methodology decision within the district's discretion. Extended school year was denied because no evidence of summer regression was presented.

On the question of whether Citrus Springs was still Student's responsible school district, the ALJ found clearly that Parents had intentionally disenrolled Student. The March 2020 letter of intent checking the "will not re-enroll" box, the return of all materials and the Chromebook, verbal confirmations throughout spring 2020, and Parents' failure to respond to any Citrus Springs communications about high school options all established that Parents had deliberately chosen to exit the program before filing their complaint.

What Was Ordered

The student's requests for relief were denied in full.
Empire Springs prevailed on Issue 1 — no FAPE denial from September 3, 2018, through September 19, 2019.
Citrus Springs prevailed on Issue 2 — no FAPE denial from September 20, 2019, through the end of the 2019–2020 school year.
Citrus Springs prevailed on Issue 3 — it is no longer Student's local educational agency following Parents' voluntary disenrollment on June 11, 2020.
No tuition reimbursement was awarded for New Vista placement.

Why This Matters for Parents

You must raise concerns at the IEP table, not after the fact. The ALJ noted that Parents consistently praised the program and agreed with IEP goals at every meeting, never mentioning New Vista or any dissatisfaction. Courts and hearing officers look at what parents actually said during the IEP process — silence or agreement at meetings will undermine a later claim that the program was inadequate.
Disenrolling your child before filing a due process complaint can eliminate the district's responsibility entirely. Here, Parents formally requested disenrollment, returned all materials, and enrolled Student at New Vista before claiming the district owed them reimbursement. Once a student is voluntarily exited from a charter school of choice, that school is no longer the responsible agency — and a due process complaint cannot revive that obligation.
Choosing a home-based charter school program does not automatically entitle you to reimbursement for a private school. The ALJ rejected the argument that a home school "classroom of one" is more restrictive than a nonpublic school. The least restrictive environment analysis looks at the whole program — including on-campus enrichment classes and support services — not just classroom size.
A district's choice of instructional methodology — such as weekly pull-out therapy versus daily social skills programming — is generally within the district's discretion. If your child's IEP team chooses a particular approach for addressing social or communication needs, you typically cannot win a FAPE challenge simply by showing that a different method might work better, unless the chosen method fails to produce meaningful progress.
Private school staff opinions carry less weight when those staff members don't know the student well. The ALJ sharply discounted testimony from New Vista's director because she had known Student for only about 30 days, made factual errors about his program, and her assessments contradicted her own teachers' written reports. If you plan to rely on observations from a new private school placement to support your case, ensure those witnesses have meaningful and documented familiarity with the student.

What Happened

What the ALJ Found

What Was Ordered

The student's requests for relief were denied in full.
Empire Springs prevailed on Issue 1 — no FAPE denial from September 3, 2018, through September 19, 2019.
Citrus Springs prevailed on Issue 2 — no FAPE denial from September 20, 2019, through the end of the 2019–2020 school year.
Citrus Springs prevailed on Issue 3 — it is no longer Student's local educational agency following Parents' voluntary disenrollment on June 11, 2020.
No tuition reimbursement was awarded for New Vista placement.

Why This Matters for Parents

You must raise concerns at the IEP table, not after the fact. The ALJ noted that Parents consistently praised the program and agreed with IEP goals at every meeting, never mentioning New Vista or any dissatisfaction. Courts and hearing officers look at what parents actually said during the IEP process — silence or agreement at meetings will undermine a later claim that the program was inadequate.
Disenrolling your child before filing a due process complaint can eliminate the district's responsibility entirely. Here, Parents formally requested disenrollment, returned all materials, and enrolled Student at New Vista before claiming the district owed them reimbursement. Once a student is voluntarily exited from a charter school of choice, that school is no longer the responsible agency — and a due process complaint cannot revive that obligation.
Choosing a home-based charter school program does not automatically entitle you to reimbursement for a private school. The ALJ rejected the argument that a home school "classroom of one" is more restrictive than a nonpublic school. The least restrictive environment analysis looks at the whole program — including on-campus enrichment classes and support services — not just classroom size.
A district's choice of instructional methodology — such as weekly pull-out therapy versus daily social skills programming — is generally within the district's discretion. If your child's IEP team chooses a particular approach for addressing social or communication needs, you typically cannot win a FAPE challenge simply by showing that a different method might work better, unless the chosen method fails to produce meaningful progress.
Private school staff opinions carry less weight when those staff members don't know the student well. The ALJ sharply discounted testimony from New Vista's director because she had known Student for only about 30 days, made factual errors about his program, and her assessments contradicted her own teachers' written reports. If you plan to rely on observations from a new private school placement to support your case, ensure those witnesses have meaningful and documented familiarity with the student.