Megan is 16. A private psychiatrist has diagnosed her as emotionally disturbed. When
Megan enters high school, the school recommends that she be placed in an in-school
placement that the parents believe to be inappropriate. They think Megan needs a
highly intensive program that integrates educational programming and counseling.
Because of their concern about Megan’s education and the time it will take to resolve
the dispute over the placement, they put Megan into a private residential program
(School A), where she receives programming year-round. The program costs $80,000
per year, which the parents pay. Two years after the parents’ unilateral placement, the
final judicial decision finds that the school’s recommended placement is not appropriate
and that the program in which Megan has been placed by her parents is appropriate.
During the judicial proceedings, the school presented evidence that although it was not
the program recommended by the school, there was another appropriate residential
program (School B) available at the time of Megan’s initial placement in School A. The
cost of the program at School B is $30,000 per year.
a. If the court were to find that School B is an appropriate placement and that there was
space in the program for Megan, how much, if anything, should the school be
required to reimburse the parents?
b. Suppose both School A and School B were appropriate placements and that School B
had been offered at the time the parents placed Megan in School A. Should the school
have to reimburse the parents at least $30,000 for each year, since it would have had
to pay that anyway?
c. Suppose that instead of refusing to pay the $80,000, the school agrees to pay the
yearly costs pending resolution of the case but contests its obligation to do so. Are the
parents required to reimburse the school if it is later determined that the school’s
program was appropriate?
d. If it is determined that a student has been provided an inappropriate program for two
years, should any compensatory education order be limited to two years? What if the
inappropriate programming occurred in primary grades or in preschool, where lost
time is difficult to compensate because of the importance of that developmental stage?