A federal judge reversed an administrative ruling and vacated an Individualized Educational Program that would have sent a Galesburg District 205 student with disabilities to a therapeutic day school in Peoria.
Instead, the court ordered the school district to create an IEP for the 7-year-old child at Silas Willard Elementary School in Galesburg.
The judgment, filed Dec. 6 in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of Illinois, settles a lawsuit filed by the child’s parents.
The child’s mother, Pamella Bess-Tabb, is serving her first term on the Galesburg District 205 Board of Education and has filed to run for a second term.
In a 20-page complaint, the parents alleged the school district’s plan to place the child at High Road School in Peoria violated a requirement of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) that stipulates a child with a disability has the right to be educated in the “least restrictive environment.”
The school district denied the child’s rights were being violated and argued the child posed a threat to the safety of others.
Following a bench trial on Oct. 21 and a review of the administrative record, U.S. District Judge Jonathan E. Hawley sided with the parents. He said the parents showed by a “preponderance of the evidence” that removing the child to High Road School was more restrictive than necessary, and therefore violated the child’s right to a free and appropriate education in the least restrictive environment under IDEA.
Instead, Hawley wrote, it’s likely the child can receive a satisfactory education at Silas with additional interventions.
According to the complaint, the child started kindergarten two years ago at King Elementary School, then started first grade there last year in a general education classroom. Last fall, the district began the special education evaluation process, which led to the child being placed in a special education classroom at Silas.
The district developed the IEP that placed the child at High Road in Peoria in December of last year. Then, in March and April of this year, an administrative hearing officer ruled the district met its obligations under IDEA and could not provide any additional supports to the child in Silas.
The parents filed the federal lawsuit on July 15, asking the court to overturn the administrative ruling and order the district to provide the child an education at Silas. Filing the lawsuit invoked the “stay put” provision of IDEA, which allowed the child to stay at Silas until the dispute was settled.
Bess-Tabb told TSPR she has no comment on the outcome of the lawsuit at this time.
Superintendent John Asplund said the board of education will meet in executive session at tonight’s regular meeting to discuss whether the district will appeal the decision.
But he said in the interim, the district will follow the judge’s order.
“We will also continue to do everything we can to prioritize the safety of staff and students,” Asplund said.