Judge: District Wrongly Put Student In Special Needs Program To Avoid State Testing

Ryan McKinnon:

An administrative law judge ruled this week that the School District of Sarasota denied a student of a “free and appropriate public education” by forcing him into a specialized program for students with the lowest IQ’s for the majority of his time in elementary and middle school.

The judge also ruled that the school district must cover the cost of intensive tutoring and private school to help “DJ,” the student in question, make up for more than six years of lost time.

“The district failed to provide an appropriate education to the student for over six years,” administrative law judge Diane Cleavinger wrote in her findings.