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<http://wsj.com>
Why One School District Spent $1 Million Fighting a Special-Education
Student
Sara Randazzo

IRVINE, Calif.-Sharon Landers and Joseph Gagliano never expected to spend
years in court fighting their public-school system.

But when the Irvine Unified School District initially disputed their
daughter had dyslexia and denied her the special-education assistance they
felt she needed to graduate, they hired a lawyer. They hoped to reach a
quick settlement.

Instead, the district appealed every ruling that went in the family's
favor, taking the case to a federal appellate court, one step below the
U.S. Supreme Court.

Irvine Unified has now spent more than $1 million in legal fees fighting Landers and Gagliano, who requested that the district pay about $40,000 a
year for their daughter to attend a specialized private school to address
her learning disabilities if it wouldn't provide the help itself.

"What caused this to continue was the sense of justice and fairness, both
for our daughter and for other kids," Landers said.

The district said it sometimes must litigate against parents because
demands for special services at private schools can be so excessive that administrators have to be cautious about establishing costly new
precedents. Roughly 10% of the district's 38,000 students have a learning disability.

The case offers a window into the growing number of high-stakes legal
fights around the country to resolve special-education disputes. Nearly
46,500 formal complaints or mediation requests were filed nationwide in 2021-22, according to the most recently available federal data. That is up
27% from the prior year.

Many parents and educators say the system is inaccessible to all but the
most savvy and well-re sourced families, and that even court wins bring
intense emotional and financial tolls.

"This is a broken system," said Sasha Pudelski, director of advocacy with
AASA, the school superintendents association. "It's truly nightmarish and doesn't work for anyone."

Children with disabilities are entitled to what is known as a free
appropriate public education under a 1970s federal law called the
Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Nationally, 8.4 million
students from ages 3 to 21 are classified as needing special education,
17% of all public-school students.

Landers and Gagliano said that for years they trusted the school system in Irvine, a master-planned Orange County city of manicured tract homes, universities and office parks. Their daughter first became eligible for
special education in early elementary school.

By sixth grade, they noticed their daughter was still reading at a
third-grade level and being given work well below grade level. They pushed
the district to give her more specialized services for dyslexia, but the
school initially wouldn't recognize the diagnosis.

"There was no effort to catch her up," said Landers, a lawyer who has
worked as an executive in government agencies. The family worried she
would never become socially acclimated or graduate high school.

By 2018, the parents decided to move their daughter to a private school
for children with dyslexia. They filed what is known as a due process case
to seek tuition reimbursement. The district argued private school was unwarranted.

After a 10-day hearing that resembled a courtroom trial, an administrative
law judge in 2019 found the district responsible for covering the year of tuition and services the family requested. In a mixed decision, the judge ultimately concluded Irvine Unified improperly modified the student's curriculum so much that she wasn't on track to graduate from high school.

Both sides appealed aspects of the decision. For the next five years, they crisscrossed from federal district court, back to the administrative law
judge and, ultimately, to the Ninth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. A large
part of the legal battle became about how much Tim Adams, the family's attorney, would be paid.

"Never in my career have I seen so much litigation by a district against
one family," Adams said.

The Ninth Circuit issued a ruling the day after Christmas upholding the family's initial win. The court also said Adams's fees, which have grown
to $406,420, should be paid by Irvine Unified. The district's bills, from
labor and employment law firm Littler Mendelson, have reached $1.13
million, public records show.

An Irvine Unified spokeswoman said the district has an obligation to
defend itself-even if it involves many appeals-if administrators feel they
can meet a student's needs. Requests for private school can top $100,000 a student a year, she said, and paying costs that the district feels are unwarranted "is neither sustainable nor an equitable distribution of funds
for all of the students we serve."

Most due process cases in the district settle, the spokeswoman said.
Irvine Unified typically spends between half a million and $1 million a
year to reimburse families for private schools.

Nationally, such reimbursements are often doled out unevenly. "The squeaky wheel gets the oil," said Amy Brandt, a San Francisco lawyer who
represents school districts. "The families who can squeak the loudest
generally have more resources."

Many working in special education want to see a less adversarial path for families, and some states are investing money to find ways to do so.

"When conflict escalates, people become emotionally involved, positions polarize, and our motivations change-we want to prove something," said
Melanie Reese, director of the federally funded Center for Appropriate
Dispute Resolution in Special Education.

Landers and Gagliano continue to pursue other due process cases to get reimbursed for additional years of private school. They have spent tens of thousands of dollars in expert fees, retainer agreements and some legal
fees that won't be reimbursed. Their daughter, now 17, will likely
graduate after an extra year of high school. She is still at a 7th-grade reading level, Landers said, but is progressing with help.

"At some point, when do you stop having this be such a large part of your life?" Landers said.

Write to Sara Randazzo at sara.randazzo@wsj.com



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Anyone that isn't confused doesn't really
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