A U.S. Court of Appeals, in Doe v. Newton Public School District, recently ruled that school districts are not required to foot the full bill for residential programming if the placement is not the Least Restrictive Environment (“LRE”). In this matter, the Parents unilaterally placed their suicidal son in a residential placement after the school district continued to recommend programming at his local high school. While the appellate court agreed with the Parents that their son required a more intensive educational setting, it concluded that the student could have been educated within a lesser restrictive, therapeutic day school setting. As such, it awarded Parents reimbursement for the tuition and therapeutic costs associated with the residential placement, but denied compensation for the room and board and transportation costs.
November 2022
