Due Process Hearing Officer Orders Private College Prep School Placement for Student; Parents and Student Prevail in Rare Virginia Decision

February 29, 2024, two Virginia parents and their student prevailed in a due process hearing against Prince William County Public Schools (PWCPS).

When Hearing Officer Rhonda Mitchell found a private college preparatory school to be the appropriate placement for the student, and ordered PWCPS to pay for the student's tuition, the word unprecedented came to the minds of the parents and their advocate.

Decisions favoring parents are outside the norm in Virginia. According to the non-profit Hear Our Voices, hearing officers in Virginia have ruled in favor of parents less than 2% of the time in the past 20 years, and approximately 1% of the time in Northern Virginia—and 26 of the 40 hearing officers appointed in the last 20 years "have never ruled, not once, in favor of a disabled or special needs child in a due process case brought under the IDEA."

The parents and advocate provided permission to share the Hearing Officer Rhonda Mitchell's decision and case closure report, PWCPS' closing brief, the advocate's closing brief, settlement, and the transcripts (to come) for the hearing.

The Issues

The case started with the following issues:

1. Whether Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) failed to develop, implement, and/or revise the student's Individualized Education Program (IEP) in a manner reasonably calculated to enable the student to make progress, including but not limited to, providing sufficient compensatory education, homebound services, and vision therapy, thereby denying the student a free appropriate public education (FAPE).

2. Whether PWCS violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act Child Find laws by failing to timely identify the student as a student with qualifying disabilities.

3. Whether PWCS significantly impeded the parents' opportunity and/or ability to participate in the decision making process regarding the provision of a FAPE for the student.

4. Whether PWCS violated procedural safeguards by failing to provide timely prior written notice to the parents of proposed IEP modifications and/or IEP meetings.

5. Whether the student should be educated in a private school setting to receive a FAPE.

Prior to the start of the hearing, the parties agreed to mediation and entered into a settlement agreement. This agreement is notable for a few reasons:

  • The agreement is not a non-disclosure agreement.
  • PWCPS agreed to reimburse the parents for vision therapy. (Counties in Virginia have fought provision of vision therapy services for years, even after one of the largest counties in the state was found at fault for systemic noncompliance regarding this issue.)
  • PWCPS agreed to 105.5 hours of compensatory education, to be provided in the form of tutoring from The New Community School to address failures related to provision of homebound instruction for the student.

After the hearing resumed, the parents withdrew issues two, three, and four. The following became the final issues to be decided upon during the hearing:

1. Whether Prince William County Public Schools (PWCS) failed to develop, implement, and/or revise the student's 504 Plan and/or Individualized Education Program (IEP) in a manner reasonably calculated to enable the student to make progress and provide the student with a FAPE for her 7th and 8th grade school years.

2. Whether the student should be educated in a private school setting at public expense in order to receive a FAPE.

3. Whether the petitioners should be reimbursed by PWCS for tuition associated with placing the student in The School, a private school.

The Decision

Mitchell ordered the following:

Pursuant to the above decision, the following is hereby ORDERED:

* The student will continue her education at [REDACTED], at public expense

* PWCS will immediately convene an IEP team meeting placing the student at [REDACTED]

* The petitioners are required to provide PWCS with a copy of the student’s progress reports as they receive them from [REDACTED].

* The student will be educated in accordance with the educational plan crafted by [REDACTED] for the student. While attending [REDACTED], the student will be evaluated, assessed, and tested in accordance with [REDACTED] protocols.

* The parents will be reimbursed for costs of enrollment/tuition associated with the student's attendance at [REDACTED] (minus two days). The parents are required to provide receipts to PWCS prior to reimbursement. Reimbursement will be made to the parents within 30 days of receipt delivery from the parents to PWCS.

* There will be no reimbursement to the parents for any activity costs or fees that are owed in addition to tuition.

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