Texas Special Education Law Blog

HISD v. VP

plawtexas — Thu, 21 May 2009 22:47:12 +0000

In Houston Independent School Dist. v. VP, the 5th Circuit Court reversed the decision of a Texas District Court and found that the parents of VP could recover the costs of the private school their daughter attended during the 2005-06 school year while the school district’s appeal of the hearing officer’s decision was litigated, even though the parents did not properly plead for reimbursement for that particular school year. The 5th Circuit refused to find that the parents forfeited the right to receive reimbursements for the costs of the private placement, which by operation of law is the “current educational placement” during the appeals litigation, simply because they do not ask for funding at the beginning of a school year. HISD, the Court found, was on notice that the private school was the student’s stay-put placement until the litigation was complete:

“Even without any filings by [the parents], notice existed as a matter of law that the [private school] was the current educational placement until an agreement to the contrary or an end to the litigation was reached.”

Stay-put in action!

(Thanks to Dorene for passing this case along.)

Current Special Ed Legislation in Texas

plawtexas — Tue, 05 May 2009 23:21:41 +0000

Texas Autism Advocacy has complied a wonderful guide to the special education, education and disability-related bills which are pending in the Texas Legislature. Their site also includes a pretty remarkable tool which helps citizens compose letters or emails to their representatives. Don’t know who your representative is? Texas Autism Advocacy has a resource for that too.

Coming Soon….

plawtexas — Thu, 30 Apr 2009 21:38:04 +0000

Welcome to my Texas Special Education Law Blog. I hope this blog will be a resource for anyone who wishes to keep up-to-date on developments in this area of law.