A.H. is a 7-year-old elementary school student who has cerebral palsy and is legally blind. On September 16, 2013, the first day of school, A.H.’s guardian took A.H. to A.H.’s neighborhood school but was told that that A.H. was assigned to a different school. This school had one nurse for 1,350 students and there was no personal nurse for A.H. Due to this lack of care, A.H.’s guardian kept A.H. home from school from September 17 to October 2 before securing a private nurse to accompany A.H. to school.
A special education hearing officer found that the School District of Philadelphia’s Individual Education Plan (IEP) for A.H. was insufficient because it did not provide a full-time nurse and awarded one hour of compensatory education to A.H. for each hour that school was in session between September 16 and October 2.
In addition, the hearing officer ruled that the District improperly designated A.H. as intellectually disabled and ordered the District to remove A.H.’s designation as a student with intellectual disabilities from the IEP.
