Garcia v. Board of Education of Albuquerque Public Schools, 49 IDELR 241, 520 F .3d 116 (10th Cir. 2008)

The current trend is that courts are weighing the "substantiveness" of an IEP over procedural violations during due process proceedings. For example, in her presentation at the 19th Annual CASE (Counsel for Administrators in Special Education), Julie Weatherly mentioned a situation whereby a district committed some procedural violations (e.g., failing to have and implement a current IEP at the beginning of the 2003 school year) yet the student was not denied access to FAPE. According to Weatherly, "...the record failed to show that the irregularities would have made any difference to, or imposed any harm on, the student. This is because she was significantly truant from school, often skipped classes and used drugs and alcohol." IEP teams must devote a great deal of attention to developing IEPs that will confer meaningful educational benefit. If their IEPs are ever contested during due process proceedings, the courts will focus much more heavily on the content of the IEP versus procedural errors.