Recent Successes in Special Education

We teamed up with The Law Offices of Irina Roller, PLLC, in a special education action against the New York City Department of Education.  Judge J. Paul Oetken, of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, issued a permanent injunction against the DOE, requiring it to make immediate tuition reimbursement payments to the parents of A.S., a child with a disability.

We successfully teamed up again with the Roller firm in an action against the New York City Department of Education. The New York State Review Officer reversed a decision by the impartial hearing officer, ruling that the parents of M.W. had placed him in an appropriate private school. It ordered the department to pay for M.W.'s tuition.

In an important special education decision for Pennsylvania and New Jersey families, Judge Gene Pratter, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, ruled for M.D. and her parents. She held that Colonial School District violated the special education law (IDEA) when it failed to offer M.D. an IEP before the start of the 2019-20 school year, and ordered the district to reimburse M.D.'s parents for tuition at AIM Academy in Conshohocken. She also ruled that M.D. and her parents should have won in their Due Process hearing and reversed the erroneous decision of the Independent Hearing Officer.

In another excellent Special Education ruling for Pennsylvania and New Jersey families, Judge Gerald McHugh, of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, upheld our victory in a Due Process hearing against the Montgomery County Intermediate Unit.  He reaffirmed the importance of the procedural due process rights for parents of children with disabilities. Robin Lipp, Esq. of Berney & Sang, was our expert appellate co-counsel.

We won an important Special Education due process hearing against the Downingtown Area School District. D.S., a child with severe dyslexia, needed intense structured literacy interventions.  After a six day trial, the independent hearing officer found that Downingtown failed to offer D.S. adequate programming for his dyslexia.  She ordered the District to reimburse D.S.'s parents for tuition at Delaware Valley Friends School, where N.B. receives intensive Orton-Gillingham literacy instruction. 

We teamed up with Catherine M. Michael, Esq. and Sonja D. Kerr, Esq. of Connell Michael Kerr, LLP in Carmel, Indiana to win a federal appeal on behalf of Brandi Wetherald and her son C.W., filed by the Carmel Clay School Corporation.

We won a due process hearing on behalf of D.S. and his parents against the Downingtown Area School District. The IHO ordered Downingtown to reimburse D.S.'s parents for tuition at Delaware Valley Friends School. 

We received a groundbreaking decision in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, allowing us to proceed to trial on behalf of B.W., a gay middle schooler who was bullied on the basis of his sexual orientation, against the Mt. Vernon School District.