Morgan Hill Illegally Exited Student from Special Ed Without Assessment

A family in Morgan Hill Unified School District fought for years to get appropriate special education services for their child, who had been found eligible under specific learning disability and other health impairment. The district improperly removed the student from special education in October 2020 without conducting a required reassessment, denying the family a FAPE. The ALJ found for the family on this narrow issue and ordered the district to reinstate eligibility, conduct new assessments, and provide 35 hours of compensatory individual academic instruction. Most other claims were dismissed due to the two-year statute of limitations or lack of sufficient evidence.

What Happened

The student was an 11-year-old fourth grader attending Morgan Hill Unified School District who had been diagnosed with ADHD in 2017. After years of parent advocacy, the district formally found the student eligible for special education under the categories of specific learning disability (SLD) and other health impairment (OHI) on December 5, 2018. However, because the parents disputed the services offered and refused to sign the IEP, the district and family were locked in a prolonged standoff. The student had briefly attended a private school and then returned to Morgan Hill for third and fourth grade. Throughout this period, the Spanish-speaking parents repeatedly requested additional assessments in areas including speech-language, occupational therapy, autism, and adaptive behavior, and the district repeatedly declined those requests.

The parents filed a due process complaint in April 2021, alleging violations going back to the 2017–2018 school year across dozens of issues — including misrepresentations by the district, failure to assess, improper IEP meetings, lack of Spanish-language documents, and more. The ALJ determined that the two-year statute of limitations barred most claims from before April 5, 2019. Of the remaining claims, the family prevailed on one critical issue: in October 2020, the district sent a letter effectively removing the student from special education status without conducting the legally required reassessment, simply because the parents had never agreed to any IEP services. The ALJ found this was an unlawful exit from special education that denied the student a FAPE.

What the ALJ Found

The outcome was mixed, with the district prevailing on the vast majority of issues and the student prevailing on two closely related issues:

Student Won — Improper Exit from Special Education (Issue 5d): Once a parent consents to a child's special education eligibility (which this parent did in writing in December 2018), the child is legally a special education student and cannot be removed from that status without a proper reassessment. The district's argument — that because the parent never consented to any services, the student was never really a special education student — was rejected. The district's October 2020 letter, which told the family it would stop trying to gain consent and treat the student as a general education student, was found to be an unlawful exit from special education without the required evaluation process.

Student Won — Failure to Assess Before Exit (Issue 5a): Because the district improperly exited the student from special education without conducting a reassessment, it also violated its obligation to assess the student in all areas of suspected disability before making that eligibility determination. Federal and state law require a reassessment before a district can determine a child is no longer eligible for special education.

District Won — Statute of Limitations (Issues 1a, 1b, and all of Issue 2): The family argued that the two-year filing deadline should be extended because the district misrepresented information and withheld procedural safeguards. The ALJ rejected both arguments. The district's witnesses credibly testified that procedural safeguards were provided in Spanish on at least three occasions in 2018, and a signed assessment plan showed the parent had received the March 2018 email. The claim that a principal told parents they had no IDEA rights was not corroborated and was directly contradicted by the principal's detailed, credible testimony. All claims about events before April 5, 2019 were time-barred.

District Won — Additional Assessments Not Required (Issues 3a, 4a): The district had already conducted a psychoeducational assessment in May 2018 covering academics, cognition, fine motor, auditory processing, and social-emotional functioning. The student's continued struggles in third and fourth grade were consistent with what had already been identified — they did not create a new obligation to reassess. The ALJ found no evidence that autism was ever suspected prior to the filing of the complaint, and no evidence supported ordering an autism assessment.

District Won — No August 2019 IEP Meeting Occurred (Issues 4e–4j): The parent did not attend the scheduled August 21, 2019 IEP meeting. The district did not hold the meeting without her. Claims of procedural violations at a meeting that never took place could not succeed.

District Won — Prior Written Notice in English Only (Issue 4c): The district failed to send the August 2019 prior written notice in Spanish, which was a procedural violation. However, the ALJ found this did not rise to a denial of FAPE because the parent understood what was being refused, had received prior notices in Spanish before, and those prior Spanish notices had refused some of the same assessments.

What Was Ordered

Reinstate eligibility: At the start of the 2021–2022 school year, Morgan Hill must reinstate the student as eligible for special education under SLD and OHI, pending IEP team review.
Offer assessment plan: Within 5 school days of the start of the 2021–2022 school year, Morgan Hill must offer an assessment plan covering psychoeducation, speech and language, and occupational therapy.
Assess even without consent if needed: If the parent does not consent to the assessment plan within 15 calendar days, the district may proceed with the assessments without parental consent.
Hold an IEP meeting: Within 60 calendar days of parental consent (or non-consent) to the assessment plan, the district must convene an IEP team meeting to review the results.
Compensatory education: Within 30 calendar days of the start of the 2021–2022 school year, Morgan Hill must make available 35 hours of individual specialized academic instruction provided by a credentialed special education teacher, outside the regular school day. These hours must be used by July 31, 2023, or they are forfeited.
All other requests denied: Requests for independent educational evaluations (IEEs), non-public school placement, a one-to-one aide, counseling, speech services, assistive technology, a facilitator, private school tuition reimbursement, and attorney's fees were all denied.

Why This Matters for Parents

Consent to eligibility is not the same as consent to services — and your child's rights attach the moment you agree to eligibility. Once you sign a document agreeing your child is eligible for special education, your child is legally a special education student. A district cannot later "un-enroll" your child from special education just because you disagree about the services offered. If the district wants to exit your child, it must conduct a full reassessment first.
The two-year filing deadline is real and very hard to extend. If you believe the district has violated your child's rights, do not wait. Courts and hearing officers require strong, specific evidence that the district actively misled you or deliberately hid information to extend the deadline — simply not understanding documents or feeling confused is not enough. File a complaint within two years of when you first knew or should have known about the problem.
Keep records of everything you send to the district — and get confirmation. The family lost several arguments because they could not prove the district received letters from Kaiser Permanente and Rebekah Children's Services. Letters without a date stamp, delivery confirmation, or written acknowledgment from the district may be treated as never received. Send important documents by certified mail or email with read-receipt, and keep copies.
Procedural safeguards in your primary language matter, but you must actually use them. The district won partly because it showed it gave the parent Spanish-language procedural safeguards on multiple occasions, and the parent did not follow up with questions. If you receive documents you don't understand, reach out to the district, an advocate, or a nonprofit for help — and document that you asked. Receiving the safeguards and not understanding them is treated differently than never receiving them at all.
If you don't attend an IEP meeting, you cannot later challenge what happened at it. The family lost all claims about the August 2019 IEP meeting because the parent did not show up and the meeting was not held. If you have concerns about an upcoming IEP meeting, raise them in writing before the meeting — don't skip it. If the meeting time or conditions are wrong, request a reschedule in writing rather than simply not attending.

What Happened

What the ALJ Found

The outcome was mixed, with the district prevailing on the vast majority of issues and the student prevailing on two closely related issues:

What Was Ordered

Reinstate eligibility: At the start of the 2021–2022 school year, Morgan Hill must reinstate the student as eligible for special education under SLD and OHI, pending IEP team review.
Offer assessment plan: Within 5 school days of the start of the 2021–2022 school year, Morgan Hill must offer an assessment plan covering psychoeducation, speech and language, and occupational therapy.
Assess even without consent if needed: If the parent does not consent to the assessment plan within 15 calendar days, the district may proceed with the assessments without parental consent.
Hold an IEP meeting: Within 60 calendar days of parental consent (or non-consent) to the assessment plan, the district must convene an IEP team meeting to review the results.
Compensatory education: Within 30 calendar days of the start of the 2021–2022 school year, Morgan Hill must make available 35 hours of individual specialized academic instruction provided by a credentialed special education teacher, outside the regular school day. These hours must be used by July 31, 2023, or they are forfeited.
All other requests denied: Requests for independent educational evaluations (IEEs), non-public school placement, a one-to-one aide, counseling, speech services, assistive technology, a facilitator, private school tuition reimbursement, and attorney's fees were all denied.

Why This Matters for Parents

Consent to eligibility is not the same as consent to services — and your child's rights attach the moment you agree to eligibility. Once you sign a document agreeing your child is eligible for special education, your child is legally a special education student. A district cannot later "un-enroll" your child from special education just because you disagree about the services offered. If the district wants to exit your child, it must conduct a full reassessment first.
The two-year filing deadline is real and very hard to extend. If you believe the district has violated your child's rights, do not wait. Courts and hearing officers require strong, specific evidence that the district actively misled you or deliberately hid information to extend the deadline — simply not understanding documents or feeling confused is not enough. File a complaint within two years of when you first knew or should have known about the problem.
Keep records of everything you send to the district — and get confirmation. The family lost several arguments because they could not prove the district received letters from Kaiser Permanente and Rebekah Children's Services. Letters without a date stamp, delivery confirmation, or written acknowledgment from the district may be treated as never received. Send important documents by certified mail or email with read-receipt, and keep copies.
Procedural safeguards in your primary language matter, but you must actually use them. The district won partly because it showed it gave the parent Spanish-language procedural safeguards on multiple occasions, and the parent did not follow up with questions. If you receive documents you don't understand, reach out to the district, an advocate, or a nonprofit for help — and document that you asked. Receiving the safeguards and not understanding them is treated differently than never receiving them at all.
If you don't attend an IEP meeting, you cannot later challenge what happened at it. The family lost all claims about the August 2019 IEP meeting because the parent did not show up and the meeting was not held. If you have concerns about an upcoming IEP meeting, raise them in writing before the meeting — don't skip it. If the meeting time or conditions are wrong, request a reschedule in writing rather than simply not attending.