Determining Compensatory Service Hours

In Reid v. District of Columbia, 43 IDELR 32 (D.C. Cir 2005), the court determined it is inappropriate to calculate the amount of compensatory special education services a student is entitled to by adding up hour for hour the amount of time services were missed. Rather, IEP teams must determine compensatory service plans based on students' individual needs. In Mary McLeod Bethune Day Academy Public Charter School v. Bland, 50 IDELR 134 (D.D.C. 2008), past psychoeducational evaluations (conducted in 2002 and 2005) revealed the student did not make educational gains over a 3 year period. A formula was used to approximate the amount of progress the student should have made over 3 years time based on educational capability. The court agreed that the proposed 3,300 hours of tutoring would compensate for the estimated loss of 1.5 years of educational progress the student should have made and would make up for the charter school's denial of FAPE.