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WASILLA -- A state hearing officer has sided with the mother of an autistic student battling the Mat-Su Borough School District over her son's education.
Hearing officer Andrew Lebo last month ordered the School District to provide $50,000 in compensatory class time and backed most of the mother's claims that the district violated federal law governing special-needs students. The School District is appealing the decision. At the center of the case is a boy, now 12, rendered largely non-verbal by autism and kept apart from other students for safety reasons, despite a federal mandate to integrate him with non-disabled students. He attends Sutton Elementary, a school of 64 students that serves families in Sutton. Neither the boy nor his mother is named by the hearing officer. The family did not want to be interviewed, said Sonja Kerr, an Anchorage attorney who has been involved in the case. School District spokeswoman Catherine Esary also refused to talk about the specifics of the case, citing pending litigation. The district filed an appeal of the hearing officer's decision in U.S. District Court in Anchorage earlier this month. The Public Interest Law Center of Philadelphia, which represents the boy's family, said the boy's mother has filed a request for attorney's fees and costs through the district's federal case. SAFETY CONCERNS According to a statement from the center, the family is disappointed the district decided to appeal "rather than work collaboratively with the parents to improve (the boy's) education so that he can be truly included." In his decision, Lebo describes a sometimes violent boy who scratched, bit, kicked and pulled the hair of students and staff. School officials grew reluctant to integrate him with other students. The boy spent less time with other students in recess, music, gym or lunch as the years passed, according to the decision. One year his mother learned that her son wasn't on the card exchange list for Christmas or Valentine's Day but instead would have "his own little party" in his self-contained classroom. District officials later cited safety concerns, Lebo stated. In third grade, the boy put a student in a chokehold and also attempted to bite another student. In 2007 he tried to bite a much younger student on the cheek. Staff, meanwhile, took to wearing clothing to protect their arms from injury and wore their hair up so it wouldn't get pulled, according to the decision. One staffer reported that the student grabbed her hair on the playground and tried to bite her cheek as she walked him inside -- bent over with the force of his grip -- and calmed him. The staffer later needed chiropractic care, according to the decision. While the district's safety concerns were warranted, Lebo found, school officials needed to do more to get the boy involved with other students. The district is required by the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act to include him with non-disabled students as much as possible. "There was no evidence of any serious attempt by the district to determine how student could be included with other children to a greater degree," he wrote. In February, 2008, the boy's mother filed a complaint with the state against the district after her son was suspended for a total of 10 days for two aggressive episodes against staff members. FAIRURE TO INTEGRATE The district provided the officer -- and the mother -- with few details about the incidents, but according to the decision during one of the episodes the boy apparently broke the skin on a staffer's ear and hand. His mother claimed the district never developed a plan to deal with the boy's behavior, and then illegally suspended him for problems related to his disabilities. More broadly, however, the woman contended the district failed to integrate her son with non-disabled students as much as possible, as required by federal law. She also claimed the district failed to upgrade her son's Individualized Educational Program or state measurable goals for his progress, also mandated by law. Lebo found in favor of a majority of the mother's 16 claims, according to his 68-page final decision issued last month. Lebo, an Anchorage attorney, served as special education due process hearing officer for the Alaska Department of Education and Early Development. He awarded the mother $50,000 to compensate for class time lost during the suspensions but also for other failures including the lack of "inclusion" in regular class settings and the school's lack of an electronic speech-generating device to help the boy, according to the decision. Lebo also agreed the district failed to carry out various requirements of the boy's education program. And he found the school erred in failing to provide more classroom inclusion for the autistic student despite the threats he posed to students and staff. POINTS WON BY DISTRICT He ordered the school enter into a contract with a national specialist on including special-needs students in the classroom. Experts testified that including the boy more might actually reduce his aggression, the hearing officer noted. The district also needs to follow through with a consistent plan to address the boy's outbursts as recommended by Outside experts and the district psychologist in 2005, he wrote. Of the nearly 16,500 students in the Mat-Su district, about 2,300 qualify as special-needs students -- they have Individualized Education Programs -- and 55 are autistic, according to spokeswoman Esary. She could not provide specific information on the amount of special-needs funding provided to the district. While Lebo backed the majority of the mother's claims, he did favor the district on a few items, including the mother's contention the district failed to make a good faith effort to help her son and failed to provide "supports and services" for the boy to meet plan goals. Instead, Lebo found, the district supplied plenty of both, "devoting a very large level of resources to student's education."