In a recent federal court decision, Oakland Unified School District v. N.S. ex rel. Genning and Samhal, a judge chastised a school district for failing to take a student’s mental health needs into account and blaming his behavior solely on drug use. The judge ruled in favor of the parents, allowing them to move forward with their claim for tuition reimbursement for their unilateral placement of their son, and indicated that if the district had evaluated the student’s mental health needs instead of attributing his problem behaviors to his drug use, it might have avoided an IDEA lawsuit.
November 2015
