Reimbursement for Unilateral Placement

In a case heard in U.S. District Court for New Jersey, the court upheld a New Jersey Administrative Law Judge’s decision to grant tuition reimbursement to a student unilaterally placed in a non-special education parochial school.

MZ was a three-year-old preschooler when he was evaluated and diagnosed with moderate expressive language deficits. MZ’s parents contacted their local school district to determine whether he might be eligible for special education services through the district. The district convened a Child Study Team and conducted evaluations but did not find MZ eligible for preschool special education services. When MZ started kindergarten, the district re-evaluated him and developed an IEP that provided only 30 minutes of speech therapy per week.

MZ’a parents were dissatisfied with his progress, requested additional evaluations, and were dissatisfied with the districts IEP and unilaterally placed MZ in kindergarten at a private parochial school.

MZ’s parents filed for due process the following year seeking tuition reimbursement for the unilateral placement for the previous and upcoming year. The ALJ denied the request for the previous year’s reimbursement, owing to the parents delayed request, and affirmed their request for the upcoming year’s tuition.

On appeal to U.S. District Court for New Jersey, the District Judge upheld the ALJ’s decision.

The case is significant because it affirms the right to tuition reimbursement for students who had not received regular special education services from their local district, and affirmed reimbursement for the costs of non-special education parochial schools, ahead of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Forest Grove School District v. TA.