School refusal while in Due Process regarding placement

[Kris]

Our AuDHD 15 yr old (they/them) finally got an IEP last year. However, it wasn't successful and they ended up missing most of the last part of the year, even on a shortened day. We had umpteen IEP meetings, mediation, and are now in Due Process. I understand that we should theoretically be in  'stay put' for the IEP. However, with the school refusal last year, the school sent a PWN removing services because our son hadn't attended school in 10 days. We argued against that and the resolution was to re-enroll for the last ~9 days of school. We are currently in a dispute about placement (residential treatment vs private) and working with an attorney who I'll also talk to about this next week.

School starts in a couple of weeks and our due process hearing won't be for another month or so. With Stay Put my understanding is that our placement is still in the current district. However, with the inability of our son to attend school in person, I'm worried they'll play the same game about dropping and removing services after 10 days. The IEP has related services that pay for our son's private therapist so I'm concerned about losing that along with the legal protections under the IEP. Has anyone had to deal with this? It doesn't seem like something they should legally be able to do, but since they tried it in the spring I think it's likely to come up again.

[Carolyn Rowlett]

Hi Kris.  Since you mentioned you are working with an attorney, I will answer this in very general terms.  Others on this site may also be hesitant to answer since you have an attorney.  Just FYI.  Your attorney will have more detail about this matter than we do and more legal knowledge of your state.

But having said that, yes, Stay Put means services stay in place.  Stay Put is more about services than actual location.  A school district can change the location of where services are provided during Stay Put (for 45 days)  if the child is a threat to themselves or others, but I'm unsure how school avoidance fits into this.  Check with your attorney and make sure you have really good data to support your child's school avoidance.

[JSD24]

If there was school refusal, some will argue that it's on the parents to get their child to school - in other words, this is a parenting issues & not a school issue.  On the other hand, an IEP that isn't FAPE can cause trauma to the student where that's the backstory behind the refusal.  Bullying can also be a reason for school refusal and it is on the school to prevent this.

I think a lot of schools unenroll a student when they are not in attendance for 10 days.  I've seen this with athletes who travel to competitions and end up missing a lot of school so not just a special ed issue.

Your attorney should know more of the details and be able to let you know if paying the therapist is tied into attending school.  Sometimes the wording in the IEP determines what will happen and we don't see this.