Understanding Compensatory Education!!

UNDERSTANDING

COMPENSATORY EDUCATION

What is it for?

Who is entitled to Comp. Ed.?

Why is it awarded?

Things that can go wrong!

Compensatory education is for a student deprived of reaching their special education and related services goals in their IEP. Compensatory education is an educational fund or services put in place to help a child to get caught up where deficiencies have been found in meeting IEP goals, when the school district is out of compliance in providing FAPE, a Free and Appropriate Public Education. It is designed to take a child who is behind and take them forward to the level they should have been if there had not been a violation and they had received appropriate services.

OCCURS WHEN Results from a state complaint or due process hearing or focused monitoring corrective action, for district identified noncompliance leading to educational loss and a denial of a free appropriate public education (FAPE)

TIME FRAME

The time frame of a state complaint must not exceed one year from the date of filing a request for a state complaint investigation, or two years for a request for a due process hearing decision.

Decisions to award compensatory education must be made within 60 days of the filing of a state complaint, or the timeline established because of focused monitoring or as the outcome of a due process hearing decision.

COMPENSATORY EDUCATION IS NOT FOUND IN IDEA.

• It was established through case law (G v. Fort Bragg Dependent Sch. 343 F.3rd 295, 309 (4th Cir. 2003).
• Schools must offer 180 teaching days or the hourly equivalent
  K-3 no fewer than 720 total instructional hours 4-12 no fewer than 900 total instructional hours
  • Retroactive reimbursement/ deterrent against unnecessarily prolonged litigation/ decreases school liability - Jefferson County vs Breen, 85 F.2d 853 (11th Cir 1988) -
  • “Compensate for past deficient program” and “should put children in the position they would have been in but for the violation,” “although ordinary education programs need only provide some benefit, compensatory education awards must do more.” Draper v. Atlanta Indep. Sch. Sys. 518 F.3d 1275, 1280 (11th Cir 2008)
  • Compensatory Education may extend past a students’ 21st birthday. MC v. Central Region Sch. Dist. 81 F.31 (3d Cir. 1996)

QUALIFYING FOR COMPENSATORY EDUCATION

• The student has to be denied FAPE.
• This can be done through:
• A discussion with the LEA
• A complaint to the Department of Education or
• Through a due process hearing.

PARENTAL INPUT STATEMENT – Your turn to be the expert at the IEP table and critical for your child’s success

THE IMPORTANCE OF PARENTAL INPUT:

"Obviously the case against the school district will be stronger the district actually knew of the educational deficiency or the parents had complained. But a child's entitlement to special education should not depend upon the vigilance of the parents (who may not be sufficiently sophisticated to comprehend the problem) nor be abridged because the district's behavior did not rise to the level of slothfulness or bad faith. Rather, it is the responsibility of the child's teachers, therapists, and administrators and of the multi-disciplinary team that annually evaluates the student's progress to ascertain the child's educational needs, respond to deficiencies, and place him or her accordingly.”

DETERMINING AMOUNT OF COMPENSATORY EDUCATION

• Attendance
• CBA Documentation, Evaluations or IEEs
• Documentation of service delivery
• How far behind is the student, and how long should it take to recoup skills?
• What deficits does the student have related to the administration of the IEP or other circumstances?
• What services need to be provided in order to help the student catch up?
• Who will administrate these services (qualifications) and for how long?
• Compensatory education can be awarded by the qualitative or quantitative method; thus they are not always awarded on a minute by minute basis. Focus on where the student would have been had the services been received in the first place. Regression data can be considered and additional hours to recoup added.

Missed 5 hours of speech and language
Evaluations showed regression and recommendation was for 10 hours of services.

Not part of the IEP

WHAT COMPENSATORY EDUCATION IS NOT

Compensatory education is:
Not ESY!!!! - They are not interchangeable.

Not a summer program.

Services are above and beyond the IEP.

Not to be discussed during the IEP meeting.

Not given during regular normal school hours Not a replacement for required services

It is to be an equitable remedy for the loss of FAPE (remember it is too little too late)

Not a punishment for the school

It is perceived as something the student was “entitled to when they began”

WHAT COMPENSATORY EDUCATION IS 4

1- Failure to implement the IEP or inappropriate implementation

 Failure to provide Services - Missed sessions
Instruction /SDIs /related services not provided appropriately

2- Failure to Identify - Child Find failure

Failure to identify a child with a disability
Child should have been receiving services under IDEA but school did not identify in a timely manner / or identify child as having a need for services

Delay in an evaluation – ask for evaluation and not done Late response to intervention

3-  Failure to develop an appropriate IEP

Not adequate to meet needs to afford a child FAPE Services should have been in IEP but were not Failure to implement comparable services
Failure to consider the full continuum of services

4-  Failure to provide FAPE

• That results in an educational deficit (loss of skills or ability)
• You need not prove regression to receive compensatory education, but rather lack of progress toward the agreed upon goals in the IEP.
• Your child has a disability and gets special education in school. The school district suspends your child for more than 10 days and doesn’t hold a manifestation hearing.
• A school district tells you that your child is a behavior problem and cannot come back to school until you have your child tested by a psychiatrist or psychologist. A school district putting children out of school for an unlimited period of time because they are having behavior problems is different from your child being suspended for a specific incident. A school district may, in some cases, give a child a long-term suspension for a behavior incident, like a fight. But a school district may not tell you that your child cannot come back to school because the school cannot handle the child’s behavior. If this happens to your child, they may be entitled to compensatory regular education.

4a- COVID Compensatory Education SERVICES CCS (Post COVID) were compensatory services that did not require bad faith on behalf of the schools or gross negligence, as a result of COVID 19 closures and other special circumstances. The awards were not automatic and had to be evaluated on an individual basis such as automatic loss of services, present levels of performance, progress and regression.

WHAT DO YOU DO NOW?

1. Don’t wait to hear whether your child’s school will offer compensatory education and what services they may offer.
2. Document any missed sessions and services.How services were delivered

• How was data tracked (see data sources)?
• Video or record student periodically for future discussion.

3. Ask for progress reports.
4. Think about what you believe your child will need to make up for lost learning and educational regression or lost services.
5. Did the school communicate with you related to services being provided and not provided?
6. What part of the IEP supports did your child receive and not receive/ not able to access the instruction?
7. Ask for school district CBA or repeat standardized assessments.
   • What are the specific skills of concern that are lost / not progressed academically or non-academically (remember the 5 curriculums).
8. Talk with your child’s outside providers to see if they have ideas for how compensatory education could be effectively delivered to your child.
9. Research available resources in your community before meeting with the school. Look for private therapists, tutors, and therapeutic programs. Ask about application procedures, availability, costs, and wait lists.
10. Develop a proposal (and alternative proposals) to take to the meeting with you.
11. Document agreement in a NOREP.

DOCUMENTATION SOURCES

o Parent input
o Current IEP
o Documentation of special education or related service provider
o Grades before during and after Violation /NTI

o Work samples before during and after Violation/NTI
o Attendance logs/student and instructor
o Student access to devices
o Progress toward goals before during and after Violation/NTI

o Evaluation or reevaluation

o Informal observation and anecdotal notes
o Rate of progress upon return to in-person instruction

Don't miss our next blog as we continue with the topic of compensatory education looking at proposals and funding.  How you NAVIGATE SETTLEMENT AGREEMENTS and all the things that have to be clarified before you sign.  We will also look at alternate funding beyond the IDEA grant

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