District Ordered Compensatory OT After Providing Only 60% of Required Services

A parent filed a due process complaint against Alpine Union School District on behalf of a student with cerebral palsy and developmental delays, alleging wide-ranging FAPE violations across two school years. The ALJ found for the student on only one issue: Alpine failed to deliver 40% of the occupational therapy services required by the IEP during the 2021-2022 school year. Alpine was ordered to provide 280 minutes of compensatory occupational therapy. The district prevailed on all other issues, including claims about placement, goals, assessments, speech services, and private school reimbursement.

What Happened

Student was an eight-year-old girl with cerebral palsy, left-sided hemiplegia (weakness on one side of her body caused by a stroke), mild intellectual disability, and ADHD. She attended Shadow Hills Elementary School in Alpine Union School District for first and second grade. Her IEP included specialized academic instruction in a special day class, occupational therapy, and speech and language services. In November 2022, during second grade, Parent withdrew Student from Alpine and enrolled her at Sierra School, a private nonpublic school, seeking reimbursement from the district.

Parent filed a due process complaint in June 2023 raising more than a dozen alleged violations spanning both school years. These included claims that Alpine failed to deliver promised services, failed to conduct adequate assessments, offered inappropriate goals, ignored independent evaluations, provided an unsafe school environment, refused to offer a one-to-one aide, and improperly assessed Student at her private school without consent. The hearing lasted eight days and addressed issues from the 2021-2022 and 2022-2023 school years.

What the ALJ Found

The ALJ ruled in the student's favor on only one narrow issue: Alpine failed to materially implement occupational therapy services during the 2021-2022 regular school year. Service logs showed the district delivered only 420 of the 700 required minutes — approximately 60% — without any documented explanation for the missing sessions. Under the legal standard, a shortfall of 40% clearly crossed the line from a minor gap into a significant failure, and the ALJ ordered compensatory services.

On every other issue, the district prevailed. Key findings included:

Speech and language services were delivered at 96% of required minutes, which constituted material implementation. Student also made measurable progress on speech goals.
Assessments were found adequate. Alpine had conducted comprehensive evaluations in 2021 covering academics, cognition, speech and language, and occupational therapy. The district was not required to assess in areas like assistive technology or adapted physical education where no suspected disability was flagged.
Independent evaluations (both Dr. Gray's neuropsychological evaluation and Himstreet's speech-language evaluation) were considered at IEP meetings, even though the district was not required to adopt their recommendations.
IEP goals were appropriate. The ALJ found no need for separate goals in articulation (Student's single speech error was age-appropriate and did not interfere with her learning), behavior, or self-care. Existing accommodations and aide support adequately addressed those needs.
Private school visits by Alpine providers were goal-progress checks, not formal assessments — so parent consent for a reassessment was not legally required.
One-to-one aide was not required. Student was in a small special day class, could self-advocate, and made progress without a dedicated aide.
Several claims about the 2021-2022 school year (placement and aide services) were dismissed entirely because they were filed more than two years after the family knew about the underlying issues — the legal deadline had passed.

What Was Ordered

Alpine must provide Student with 280 minutes of compensatory occupational therapy services, beginning no later than 45 days after the decision was issued.
Services must be used by June 28, 2024, after which any unused time is forfeited.
Alpine may select the provider (district staff or outside agency) at its discretion.
The parties must coordinate on scheduling; if they cannot agree, services are to be provided at a district school during regular school hours.
All other requests for relief — including private school tuition reimbursement — were denied.

Why This Matters for Parents

Track every service session your child is supposed to receive. The single issue the parent won here came down to service logs proving that only 60% of required occupational therapy minutes were delivered. Keep your own running count of sessions, and compare it to what the IEP requires. A shortfall of 40% was enough to win compensatory services.
There is a two-year deadline to file a due process complaint — and it runs from when you first knew about the problem, not from when you decided to act. The ALJ dismissed the parent's claims about first-grade placement and aide services because the family had filed a prior complaint showing they already knew about those issues more than two years earlier. If you suspect your child's IEP is inadequate, do not wait.
Districts are not required to adopt recommendations from independent evaluators — only to consider them. Both independent evaluations in this case were discussed at IEP meetings, which satisfied the legal requirement. If you obtain a private evaluation, push for a detailed discussion at the IEP meeting and document in writing any recommendations the team rejects and why.
Withdrawing your child from the district school and enrolling in a private school does not automatically entitle you to reimbursement. To win tuition reimbursement, a parent must prove the district's program was inappropriate AND that the private placement was appropriate. Here, the parent could not establish the district's program was inappropriate on most issues, so reimbursement was denied.

What Happened

What the ALJ Found

On every other issue, the district prevailed. Key findings included:

Speech and language services were delivered at 96% of required minutes, which constituted material implementation. Student also made measurable progress on speech goals.
Assessments were found adequate. Alpine had conducted comprehensive evaluations in 2021 covering academics, cognition, speech and language, and occupational therapy. The district was not required to assess in areas like assistive technology or adapted physical education where no suspected disability was flagged.
Independent evaluations (both Dr. Gray's neuropsychological evaluation and Himstreet's speech-language evaluation) were considered at IEP meetings, even though the district was not required to adopt their recommendations.
IEP goals were appropriate. The ALJ found no need for separate goals in articulation (Student's single speech error was age-appropriate and did not interfere with her learning), behavior, or self-care. Existing accommodations and aide support adequately addressed those needs.
Private school visits by Alpine providers were goal-progress checks, not formal assessments — so parent consent for a reassessment was not legally required.
One-to-one aide was not required. Student was in a small special day class, could self-advocate, and made progress without a dedicated aide.
Several claims about the 2021-2022 school year (placement and aide services) were dismissed entirely because they were filed more than two years after the family knew about the underlying issues — the legal deadline had passed.

What Was Ordered

Alpine must provide Student with 280 minutes of compensatory occupational therapy services, beginning no later than 45 days after the decision was issued.
Services must be used by June 28, 2024, after which any unused time is forfeited.
Alpine may select the provider (district staff or outside agency) at its discretion.
The parties must coordinate on scheduling; if they cannot agree, services are to be provided at a district school during regular school hours.
All other requests for relief — including private school tuition reimbursement — were denied.

Why This Matters for Parents

Track every service session your child is supposed to receive. The single issue the parent won here came down to service logs proving that only 60% of required occupational therapy minutes were delivered. Keep your own running count of sessions, and compare it to what the IEP requires. A shortfall of 40% was enough to win compensatory services.
There is a two-year deadline to file a due process complaint — and it runs from when you first knew about the problem, not from when you decided to act. The ALJ dismissed the parent's claims about first-grade placement and aide services because the family had filed a prior complaint showing they already knew about those issues more than two years earlier. If you suspect your child's IEP is inadequate, do not wait.
Districts are not required to adopt recommendations from independent evaluators — only to consider them. Both independent evaluations in this case were discussed at IEP meetings, which satisfied the legal requirement. If you obtain a private evaluation, push for a detailed discussion at the IEP meeting and document in writing any recommendations the team rejects and why.
Withdrawing your child from the district school and enrolling in a private school does not automatically entitle you to reimbursement. To win tuition reimbursement, a parent must prove the district's program was inappropriate AND that the private placement was appropriate. Here, the parent could not establish the district's program was inappropriate on most issues, so reimbursement was denied.