2 families win special-ed disputes with Clovis Unified

They fought district to get services for two students.

Published online on Thursday, Jun. 11, 2009

Two families have won legal victories in their fights with Clovis Unified School District to get more academic help for their special-needs children.

In one case, a federal judge found that Clovis Unified failed to provide special-education services to a boy diagnosed with attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder.

In the other case, an administrative law judge found that the district denied a "free and appropriate public education" to a boy with autism and ordered the district to provide 685 hours of compensatory education.

On Thursday, Clovis Unified spokeswoman Kelly Avants said the district could not comment on either ruling, because district officials were still reviewing them.

On Monday, U.S. District Judge Lawrence O'Neill found that Clovis Unified didn't provide special-education services for a boy who is now a fifth-grader at Maple Creek Elementary. Lawrence's decision overturned an earlier administrative law judge ruling.

The boy was diagnosed with attention-deficit (hyperactivity) disorder, but the district failed to assess the student in the area of writing and failed to identify the student as being eligible for special-education and related services, O'Neill found.

That, he found, violated the boy's right to a free and appropriate public education under federal law, and it also violated the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

The boy's name is not included in publicly available court records, and his parents, Bryon and Kerri Horn, declined to make his name public. They had been fighting since 2003 for special-education services for him.

According to Bryon Horn, school officials said their son merely had behavioral problems and did not need special-education services.

The dispute went to a hearing before an administrative law judge assigned by the state to hear special-education cases, and the judge ruled in favor of the district. The family took the case to federal court.

Bryon Horn said the family has spent more than $100,000 and had to refinance their home to fight the district. He said the federal court decision is a victory, but he remains skeptical about what help his son will receive.

"We are happy he is eligible," he said. "What they provide him is another story."

The judge did decide in the district's favor on one issue. He said the district "did not commit clear error to determine that [the] student was ineligible for special education and related services under the category of special-learning disorder."

Elaine Yama, the lawyer representing the Horns, said the services the district must provide have yet to be decided. But the court has made it clear "this is not a behavioral disorder," she said. "It was physical, neurological."

The other decision concerned the special education needs of 12-year-old Michael Gonzalez, who has autism. That decision was delivered to the family late Friday.

The administrative law judge found in favor of the district in many areas of the case, but the judge also found that the district denied Michael a free and appropriate public education for the 2007-08 school year.

Debbie Gonzalez had challenged the district over her son's learning plan, which she said focused on soft social skills -- like how to make a bed -- instead of academics.

The judge said the district must provide Michael with 685 hours of compensatory education -- including reading, math, social skills and speech and language -- within three years. The judge found that the district failed to assess Michael during the 2007-08 school year and failed to provide adequate academic, social skills and speech and language goals and objectives for the year.

The family had argued the district's academic goals were inadequate dating back to 2006.

The district also must pay for an independent assessment by a psychologist chosen by the parents to determine the cause of Michael's other difficulties.

Neither the district nor the Gonzalez family prevailed outright, and the judge noted that the parents' "lack of cooperation" was responsible for an incomplete assessment. But the judge said the district could have taken other steps to address Michael's needs.