School district refuses to provide transportation

Dan P is 17 and attends Carson High School, in the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD). He entered 9th grade at Carson in September 2000. Some time after that, LAUSD divided itself into 11 administrative subdistricts (A through K). Carson High is in subdistrict K, but Locke High School, Dan P’s school of residence, is in subdistrict I.

IEP says he attends Carson

When school started in September 2001, the subdistrict K coordinator sent notices to Dan P’s parents telling them that their son would have to go to Locke High School at the end of the 2001-2002 school year. Dan P’s mother objected because his individualized education plan (IEP) placed him at Carson.
Mother sends documents to PAI

Dan P’s mother contacted the Office of Clients Rights Advocacy (OCRA) in January 2002, after she got some notices from the subdistrict K coordinator. Christine Armand, the assistant clients’ rights advocate for consumers at South Central Los Angeles Regional Center, asked Dan P’s mother to fax letters and documents she had received from the district.

Two choices offered — both bad

Armand and Patricia Carlos, the clients’ rights advocate, reviewed the letters and documents, and Dan P’s IEPs. OCRA agreed to represent Dan P at his IEP meeting in May 2002. At that IEP meeting, the administration told them they had two options:

1. Stay at Carson with no transportation; or

2. Go to Locke with transportation.

Dan P’s mother, on OCRA’s advice, refused to accept either of those options.

Mediation resolves issue

Carlos and Armand filed for a due process hearing. They argued that, once a student is placed at a school other than the school of residence, only the IEP team or a hearing officer can change that placement.

They won a stay-put motion that allowed Dan P to stay at Carson until the complaint was resolved. At mediation, the case resolved in Dan P’s favor. Details of the agreement are confidential.