District Must Provide Round-Trip Transportation for Community Outings, Even If Parent Volunteers

A 16-year-old student with cerebral palsy, spastic quadriplegia, and multiple disabilities brought claims against Capistrano Unified School District for three alleged FAPE denials during the 2021-2022 school year. The ALJ found the district violated the student's IEP when it conditioned her participation in a community-based mall trip on her parent providing the return ride home, instead of furnishing the specialized transportation required by her IEP. The district prevailed on the other two issues — whether parents and a private in-home nurse had to be involved in training a new school nurse, and whether the district failed to develop new IEP goals at the May 2022 annual meeting.

What Happened

Student is a 16-year-old with cerebral palsy with dystonia and spastic quadriplegia, intellectual disability, and orthopedic impairment. She is nonverbal, requires a gastronomy tube for feeding, uses a Hoyer mechanical lift for transfers, and depends on a one-to-one licensed vocational nurse (LVN) throughout her entire school day. Student was placed in a functional life skills program where weekly community outings — such as visits to the mall — were a core part of her curriculum, helping her practice money skills, social interaction, and real-world communication.

Parent filed a due process complaint in April 2022 raising three separate concerns: (1) that Capistrano refused to let Parent and Student's private in-home nurse participate in training a new school-provided LVN; (2) that Capistrano failed to provide transportation for a March 4, 2022 community mall trip, effectively conditioning Student's participation on Parent picking her up early; and (3) that Capistrano failed to develop new IEP goals for physical therapy, occupational therapy, speech-language, assistive technology, communication, and academics at the May 9, 2022 annual IEP meeting. The hearing was held over three days in October 2022.

What the ALJ Found

Issue 1 — LVN Training (District Won): The ALJ agreed that OAH lacked jurisdiction to enforce the terms of a December 2021 settlement agreement between the parties, which had addressed LVN training. Separately, the ALJ found that a district has the legal right to select and train its own service providers. Because FAPE must be provided at no cost to parents, it cannot be made dependent on parental participation or on the involvement of a privately hired provider. Student did not prove that having Parent or the in-home LVN participate in training Capistrano's new LVN was legally required in order for Student to receive a FAPE.

Issue 2 — Transportation (Student Won): Student's IEP expressly required specialized round-trip transportation, including a temperature-controlled wheelchair-accessible bus with an LVN on board and trips limited to 40 minutes. When Student's teacher told Parent that Student could not attend the March 4, 2022 mall trip because the full outing would exceed her wheelchair tolerance, Parent asked whether Student could ride the bus there and be picked up early. Parent agreed and ultimately picked Student up shortly after arrival. The ALJ found this was a material failure to implement Student's IEP. The district's transportation obligation cannot be shifted to a parent — even if a parent voluntarily agrees to help. The fact that Parent was willing to provide the return trip did not relieve Capistrano of its legal duty to do so.

Issue 3 — IEP Goals (District Won): The ALJ found that Capistrano did develop new, more demanding goals in all of the areas Student identified — occupational therapy, speech-language, assistive technology, communication, and academics. The only prior goal that was carried forward (the standing goal) was retained because baseline data was still being gathered due to an unresolved equipment issue. The IDEA does not require goals to be entirely "new" — what matters is that they address Student's current needs, which the IEP team determined they did.

What Was Ordered

Capistrano must fund a two-hour training for its special education administrators and Student's 2022-2023 special education teachers, case manager, and aides on implementing IEPs with fidelity — specifically including training that IEP implementation cannot be conditioned on parental involvement or participation. The training must be conducted by an outside attorney not under contract with Capistrano, completed by June 30, 2023.
All other requests for relief — including compensatory services — were denied.

Why This Matters for Parents

A parent's willingness to fill in does not let a district off the hook. If your child's IEP includes transportation, the district must provide it — even for community outings during the school day. If you voluntarily drive your child somewhere because the district says it can't accommodate the full trip, that does not make the district's failure acceptable under the law.
Districts have the right to choose and train their own service providers. Even if you believe your private provider or in-home caregiver has critical knowledge about your child, the law does not require the district to involve them in training district-employed staff. The district controls its own staffing decisions as long as those staff can meet your child's needs.
IEP goals do not have to be brand new — they have to be appropriate. If your child has met prior goals, the IEP team should develop goals that build on that progress. But there is no legal rule requiring a completely different goal each year. The key question is whether the goals address your child's current needs.
Community-based instruction counts as placement — and transportation to get there is part of the IEP. For students in functional life skills programs, community outings are not optional extras. They are part of the offered educational program. If your child's IEP requires transportation, that right extends to community instruction sites, not just the school building.

What Happened

What the ALJ Found

What Was Ordered

Capistrano must fund a two-hour training for its special education administrators and Student's 2022-2023 special education teachers, case manager, and aides on implementing IEPs with fidelity — specifically including training that IEP implementation cannot be conditioned on parental involvement or participation. The training must be conducted by an outside attorney not under contract with Capistrano, completed by June 30, 2023.
All other requests for relief — including compensatory services — were denied.

Why This Matters for Parents

A parent's willingness to fill in does not let a district off the hook. If your child's IEP includes transportation, the district must provide it — even for community outings during the school day. If you voluntarily drive your child somewhere because the district says it can't accommodate the full trip, that does not make the district's failure acceptable under the law.
Districts have the right to choose and train their own service providers. Even if you believe your private provider or in-home caregiver has critical knowledge about your child, the law does not require the district to involve them in training district-employed staff. The district controls its own staffing decisions as long as those staff can meet your child's needs.
IEP goals do not have to be brand new — they have to be appropriate. If your child has met prior goals, the IEP team should develop goals that build on that progress. But there is no legal rule requiring a completely different goal each year. The key question is whether the goals address your child's current needs.
Community-based instruction counts as placement — and transportation to get there is part of the IEP. For students in functional life skills programs, community outings are not optional extras. They are part of the offered educational program. If your child's IEP requires transportation, that right extends to community instruction sites, not just the school building.