In Nashua School District, A New Hampshire due process hearing officer found in favor of the parents of a student with Autism, Emotional Disabilities and speech deficits in granting placement for the student within a residential program, despite the fact that the student was skipping over a placement continuum option – private therapeutic day school – and moving to a more restrictive setting. The hearing officer affirmed the high school student’s, “…social, emotional, and other needs are not segregable from the learning process,” and noted, “… If the Student was younger, and time were not of the essence, this argument [for a lesser restrictive setting first] might have been more persuasive. In any event, the IDEA does not require that each placement on the continuum be tried before residential placement can be considered.”
May 2022
