When a school district is not following the IEP, or has otherwise violated a child’s rights regarding special education, one of the only legal remedies available under federal law is compensatory education. If parents bring legal action against a district for violating the IEP for example, parents can’t win money under special ed law (IDEA). They can win attorney’s fees, tuition reimbursement (for example if they enrolled their child in private school because the public school wasn’t providing a free appropriate public education), and/or compensatory education.
What does that look like?
Compensatory education means educational services (for example teaching from a special education teacher, occupational therapy services, speech/language services, etc) that should have been provided but were not. For example, if the IEP says that a child should receive 30 minutes per day of special education reading instruction, but the district failed to provide this for a semester because the teacher quit and couldn’t be replaced, then the child should receive extra services to make up for what was missed. Sometimes that looks like extra special ed time at school from school providers, but other times it means the district paying for services outside of school, for example tutoring or private speech therapy.
How Will Schools Pay for Compensatory Ed Services?
What to do if you think your child needs compensatory education:
Document it. Gather any documentation of time that was missed. Emails saying the teacher is out and they are trying to hire a new one, IEP progress notes that state the service wasn’t provided during this time period, etc. Get a copy of the current IEP (or the one covering the time period in question) and add up how many minutes per week were called for in the IEP, and how many were missed.
Put it in writing. Send an email to the team (teacher, case manager, principal, special ed administrator) stating that you are concerned that your child may be owed compensatory education for X time period due to Y&Z. Request a meeting of the IEP team to discuss your concern. If you get no response within 5 school days, resend the email, cc’ing any other special education administrators you are aware of or can find listed on the district website.
Keep your cool. I know, it’s hard. But, a well-prepared parent who references the law and channels their rage into succinct emails is often taken more seriously. Be relentless in your followup. Send an email after every meeting to memorialize the conversation - if it’s not documented in writing it never happened - and ask for an answer to remaining questions within 10 school days.
Don’t accept no for an answer, unless it is supported by data. In most cases, missed service time will result in flatlining progress or regression. If your documentation shows that services were missed, it’s on the district to show that compensatory services AREN’T needed. Anything less is not acceptable.
Get help if you need it. Unfortunately, the more families I work with the more I realize how badly parents can be treated by school teams. If your concerns are being dismissed, if administrators aren’t responding to messages, and if excuses are continually being made, get an advocate. When a good advocate joins the team it makes staff pay attention to parent concerns, and elevates parent voice in discussions. You don’t have to do it alone.