Is it too late to file a due process complaint against our son’s former school district?

 Question:   Over a year ago, our son was struggling with reading and his pediatrician referred him for testing at the Hawkeye University Hospitals and Clinics (HUHC). After he was diagnosed with dyslexia, we gave the testing report to the Bean City School District and AEA evaluation team. The team told us they didn’t suspect that our son had a disability in reading because his reading scores weren’t much different from those of his classmates.  

    Last spring I changed jobs and we moved to Corn City. We gave our son’s HUHC report to the Corn City School District and Corn AEA evaluation team. The Corn City team said his reading scores were far below those of students in the Corn City School District. The Corn AEA performed a full evaluation and the school began providing our son with special education services in reading. 

    We told a Corn City school board member about this and asked why there was such a big difference between the two school districts. She got back to us and said that an Iowa Department of Education report showed that almost 90 percent of the 7th-graders in the Corn City district were proficient in reading, but only about half the Bean City 7th-graders were proficient in reading.

    Our son is working hard on reading, but he will need more reading help over the summer to be ready for the amount of reading next fall in his first year of high school. We think the Bean City School District should pay for this because he wouldn’t have been so far behind if it had provided him with special education services in reading. May we file a due process complaint against the Bean City School District?

Response:  No. Although the IDEA doesn’t prohibit parents from filing a due process complaint against a former school district, the Court of Federal Appeals for the Eighth Circuit has held that parents forfeit the right to file a due process action against a former school district unless they file it before their child leaves the former school district. See Thompson by & Through Buckhanon v. Board of the Special Sch. Dist. No. 1, 144 F.3d 574, 579 (8th Cir. 1998); see also C.N. v. Willmar Pub. Sch., Indep. Sch. Dist. No. 347, 591 F.3d 624, 631, n.6 (8th Cir. 2010).

    More needs to be said concerning the different eligibility determinations by the two Iowa school districts and AEAs, but I’ll save that for another blog.