1. Pascal is a male, 16 year old tenth-grad dent at Southern High School, located in the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania.
2. Pascal has qualified for special education and related services since he entered Southern School District in kindergarten.
3. He is significantly impaired and has a full-scale intelligence quotient (FSIQ) of 50. Pascal’s achievement scores are all below 60 (word reading, reading comprehension, spelling, essay composition, math problem solving, numerical operations).
4. Pascal is qualified for special education as a student with Autism, Intellectual Disability, and Speech and Language Impairment.
9th Grade
5. Pascal transitioned to Southern High School at the start of his 9th grade year. 6. Pascal was provided with a 1:1 aide (paraprofessional). 7. Among other academic goals, the following reading comprehension goal was placed into his IEP
for the start of his 9th grade year:
Measurable Annual Goal Describe how the student’s progress toward meeting this goal will be measured
Describe when periodic reports on progress will be provided to parents
When given a 3rd grade level reading passage, Pascal will independently read the passage and answer comprehension questions (including multiple choice and/or short answer) related to main idea and supporting details from the text with 80% accuracy in 4 out of 5 trials during the 9 week grading period (increasing from a baseline of 56%)
Data will be collected on teacher observation of task completion. Curriculum based assessments
Quarterly reports will be sent home with Pascal during the school district’s schedule.
Torrieonna Cash
8. During 9th grade, he made the following progress on his reading comprehension goal: Quarter 1 – 70%; Quarter 2 – 75%; Quarter 3 – 75%; Quarter 4 – 80%.
9. By way of background, Pascal had the same reading comprehension goal in 8th grade and was at 70% progress each quarter of 8th grade.
10. Pascal had several speech goals. One of his goals was:
Measurable Annual Goal Describe how the student’s progress toward meeting this goal will be measured
Describe when periodic reports on progress will be provided to parents
Given structured social opportunities with peers, Pascal will increase pragmatic language skills by using greetings, joining a group, and asking/answering questions for 2-3 exchanges, in 80% of opportunities over 3 consecutive quarters. Baseline is 65%.
Data will be collected on speech and language pathologist observations.
Quarterly reports will be sent home with Pascal during the school district’s schedule.
11. During 9th grade, Pascal made the following progress on his speech goal: Quarter 1 – 70%;
Quarter 2 – 75%; Quarter 3 – 50%; Quarter 4 – 80%. 12. He began having behavioral difficulties. Over 9th grade, there were 20 instances of throwing
objects in the classroom, 5 instances of Pascal slapping another student, and 40 instances of biting his hand. These incidents began during the first week of school and were fairly intense and frequent during the first and second quarters.
13. Throughout 8th grade, the school team expressed to parents in IEP Team meetings that they believed his behavioral needs were too significant for Pascal to be placed in general education classes with typically developing peers. At the parent’s insistence, Pascal was placed in a general education classroom throughout 9th grade for art, lunch, gym, and social studies. The parent requested that Pascal should also be placed in a general education science class, but the school district refused stating that his behavioral needs prevented other students from learning in a classroom with him.
14. In November of 9th grade, Pascals parents heard about a new curriculum referred to Super Reader that they believed Pascal should be provided. Super Reader is an experimental program without studies to support the program. The school district refused to implement Super Reader and continued to implement the Wilson Reading System, an evidence-based reading program.
15. The parent emailed the school district at least 1 time per month during the first 2 quarters of Pascals 9th grade year expressing concerns with his behaviors. The school district did not respond to the parents emails and did not convene the IEP team.
16. The most significant behavioral incident occurred on February 14 when Pascal threw a chair at a student, hitting the student in the head. The student was sent to the nurse and rated her pain a 6 out of 10. The student stayed home from school the next day but was able to return to school thereafter without restrictions.
17. Pascal was suspended from school for 2 days. The School District told the parent that they did not have to perform a manifestation determination review (MDR). The parent believed that an MDR was required in Pennsylvania because Pascal with intellectually disabled.
18. The IEP Team met on February 15 to discuss Pascals behaviors.
19. The School District performed a functional behavioral assessment (FBA) in March of his 9th grade year and developed a positive behavior support plan (PBSP). The parent and school district agree that the FBA was comprehensive.
20. One of the primary antecedents (the event that occurred before the behavior) discovered in the FBA was when Pascal was presented with a task that is non-preferred. Pascal would demonstrate the behavior to escape the task and be presented with preferred tasks.
21. After the PBSP was developed, Pascal’s behavioral incidents decreased and he was able to attend his regular education class with limited behavioral incidents.
22. The following behavior goal was placed in the PBSP and the below data was tracked for the 4th quarter (this was the first quarter the goal was able to be implemented after the PBSP was developed):
Measurable Annual Goal
Describe how the student’s progress
toward meeting this goal will be measured
Describe when periodic reports on
progress will be provided to parents
When presented with a choice of 2 assigned tasks at the start of a class period, Pascal will transition to independent work and/or an assigned instructional task, demonstrating appropriate, on-task behavior (i.e., not throwing chair) for 90% of the days during the 9 week grading period. Baseline is unknown.
Data will be collected daily on a behavior data sheet tallying the number of occurrences
Quarterly progress reports will be sent home with Pascal following the school district’s schedule.
23. At the end of Pascal’s 9th grade year progress monitoring for the 4th quarter indicated that Pascal’s progress on his behavior goal was 70%.
24. Mid-way through 9th grade, Pascal tried out for the basketball team. After tryouts, ten students did not make the basketball team, including Pascal. The team had an open position for Team Manager. Pascal applied for the position and was selected.
25. Pascal’s IEP Team convened and decided that his paraprofessional would attend basketball practices and games with him. His paraprofessional became sick and although the school district provided a substitute paraprofessional at school, they were unable to locate someone to serve as his paraprofessional at basketball for 3 weeks. During the 3 weeks he did not have a paraprofessional, Pascal hit another player and received a 3 day suspension from the team.
26. At the end of Pascal’s 9th grade year, the IEP Team convened to discuss Pascal’s educational programming for 10th grade. The parent was unhappy with how 9th grade progressed. The parent wanted Pascal to be included in a general education classroom for science and social studies in 10th grade, but the school district refused.
Procedural History:
27. In the summer after 9th grade, the parent filed a Due Process Complaint because she generally believed that Pascal was denied a FAPE. The parent made the following claims:
a. The school district failed its child find duty with regarding to identifying and properly programming for Pascals behavioral needs in a timely manner.
b. The school district denied Pascal a FAPE because he did not make sufficient progress on his IEP goals in reading comprehension, speech, and behavior.
c. The school district denied Pascal a FAPE when it did not provide sufficient supports and services to him, in particular, 1) Pascal should have made the basketball team and consistently been provided with an aide, and 2) Pascal should have received the Super Reader curriculum instead of Wilson.
d. Pascal was denied a FAPE when the school district suspended him for two days from school and 3 days from basketball.
28. Hearing Officer (your name) was assigned to conduct an administrative hearing. 29. Over the course of 2 days, Hearing Officer (your name) heard witnesses and reviewed exhibits. 30. Hearing Officer (your name) found all witnesses credible and developed a Finding of Facts to rely
upon in making their decision. The Finding of Facts is listed in the above 26 numbered paragraphs.
31. Hearing Officer (your name) will issue a decision on the 4 issues listed above in paragraph 27.
Final Project Instructions:
You are the hearing officer assigned to the case of Pascal v. Southern School District. You have heard testimony and reviewed exhibits and have developed a Finding of Fact (paragraphs 1-26). Findings of Fact from a hearing officer contain the pertinent facts that a hearing officer uses in making a decision. There is not a set answer that is correct, I am looking for your analysis. Your decision specifically looks at Pascal’s 9th grade year, but you can also use the background information provided to base your opinion. If there is information you believe you need, but it is not listed, you should assume that the information was not presented in the hearing and was unavailable. You can use any of the information posted on our class page, including but not limited to, cases, power point information, sections of the IDEA, and Section 504. I have also provided you with several cases within this assignment section that you may use (these are cases that we discussed in Power Point presentations). You may use any outside sources, but please cite those sources in APA format.
The following sections must be included in your legal decision:
I. Introduction a. Introduce the case to the reader by summarizing some of the facts and give the Endrew
F. FAPE standard as the law you will apply to determine if the school district provided Pascal with a FAPE under the 4 issues you are presented. Provide at least a few sentences explaining the FAPE standard from Endrew F.
II. Issue 1: Did the school district fail its child find duty with regard to identifying and properly programming for Pascals behavioral needs in a timely manner? a. State the issue, relevant law/rule, and apply the law and case precedent to the facts of
the case. b. State why or why not the school district complied with the law.
III. Issue 2: Did the school district provide Pascal a FAPE on his IEP goals in reading comprehension, speech, and behavior. a. State the issue, relevant law/rule, and apply the law and case precedent to the facts of
the case.
b. State why or why not the school district complied with the law. IV. Issue 3: Did the school district provide Pascal a FAPE with regarding to his related services
and supports when he did not make the basketball team and was not consistently provided an aide when he was the team manager and should Pascal have been provided with the Super Reader curriculum instead of Wilson. a. State the issue, relevant law/rule, and apply the law and case precedent to the facts of
the case. b. State why or why not the school district complied with the law.
V. Issue 4: Did the school district deny Pascal a FAPE when it suspended him for 2 days from school and 3 days from basketball? a. State the issue, relevant law/rule, and apply the law and case precedent to the facts of
the case. b. State why or why not the school district complied with the law.
VI. Conclusion a. You do not need to issue any damages such as compensatory education. You will need
to state a summary of your overall conclusion about whether Pascal was provided a FAPE and why.
Please use a reasonable 12-point font, 1 inch page margins, and do not exceed 10 pages. It is up to you whether you use double space or single-spaced lines. You do not have to reach the 10-page limit. I am looking for your analysis and how you apply the law to the facts and come to a well-reasoned decision. Again, there is no right or wrong answer, but you need to convince me that your decision is the correct one.
Grading rubric:
10 points – Introduction 20 points – Issue 1 20 points – Issue 2 20 points – Issue 3 20 points – Issue 4 10 points – Conclusion
*Each section must discuss the criteria set forth in the above outline.
**I am looking forward to reading your legal decisions. I know that you are not an attorney, and I do not expect perfection. To receive a good score, you will need to put time and thought into your legal decision and come to a well-reasoned and well-researched decision. I am always available to answer questions.
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