Peter: Previous mediation resulted in agreement of services to be included in the IEP for school year 2015-2016. Services were added to the IEP but most of them were not provided until Feb 2016, and even then they were not the full services required.
Compensatory hours were promised for services missed, but school was so far behind that there was no way hours could be provided before the end of the school year (and my son graduated). The school currently owed almost 60 hours.
Since my son has already graduated, I don’t want to have to continue to deal with the school system for what could be up to a year, to use up 60 hours, which I intend to use to help him with college. I also don’t want get into a situation where they refuse to pay for certain things. I want to be the sole arbiter of what services to provide. Therefore, I would like them to pay me a lump sum.
The school acknowledges the owed hours, but says they can only pay as services are rendered and not as a lump sum.
Since I have already prevailed at mediation, I am entitled to go directly to court. Or I could just request another mediation. What is the likelihood of getting a lump sum? The law is silent on this and simply says that compensatory services must be provided.
I have run into this before & the school made up the time during the last quarter of the school year & into the summer. I don’t think you will get any money only time. I would see if they can meet your son before or after school or during the summer to make up the time.
In principle it is possible to get the lump sum. I can’t gauge the likelihood that you’ll achieve it — but best of luck.
Note that what I have read is that when compensatory services are calculated, they aren’t given tit for tat, what I mean is that you don’t necessarily get the number of hours of services that were missed. Instead, I believe an estimate is made of how many hours it would take to get the student from Point A (educationally) to Point B.