The Thompson School District must reimburse the parents of a severely autistic Berthoud boy more than $353,000 for the cost of schooling him at a residential facility in Boston, an administrative law judge has ruled.
In an Oct. 6 decision, Judge Michelle Norcross upheld a state hearing officer’s July ruling that the Loveland-based district failed to provide an adequate education for 11-year-old Luke Perkins.
The boy’s parents, Jeff and Julie Perkins, argued that their son has a tendency to regress and needs 24-hour supervision if he is to learn such basic life skills as using the toilet, eating and sleeping properly, and developing a vocabulary of more than 100 words. Jeff Perkins said Wednesday that when his son returned home from Boston for the summer, his skills had improved significantly. But Thompson officials, who challenged the state hearing officer’s decision and lost a second time, said the ruling sets a frightening precedent for all school districts facing special-education costs.
Financially, it’s “catastrophic,” said board member Marcia Venzke. “It literally can bankrupt a district if they’re not careful.”
She said the district, which operates on a $100 million budget, had recently allocated $190,000 from a contingency fund for the legal costs associated with fighting Luke’s parents, Jeff and Julie Perkins.
Superintendent Dan Johnson said the board likely will discuss early next week whether to appeal in district court. “We have to weigh whether we believe we are doing the right thing by our program,” he said.
“You have to weigh whether or not the future cost of appealing this will save more money and establish some parameters that we feel are within the scope of what should be expected of a public school.”
The Perkinses placed Luke in the Boston Higashi school in January 2004, after deciding that the December 2003 education plan that the district outlined for their son failed to include placement in a residential facility. Federal law entitles him to a free and appropriate public education, they argued.
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-820-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
