For now, the Thompson School District will pay the $130,000-a-year tuition for a severely autistic Berthoud boy who has been enrolled in a residential school in Boston for almost two years, the school board president said Monday.
But the district plans to appeal in U.S. District Court a recent ruling that orders it to pay for the private school, said Stu Stuller, attorney for the district. Jeff and Julie Perkins moved their son Luke to Boston Higashi School in January 2004, saying the Thompson district failed to properly educate their son.
Becky Jay, board president in the Loveland-based district, said, “We’re hoping we get a ruling in another way and we won’t have to pay.”
Stuller said the district will pay the tuition, but only as far back as Oct. 6, when an administrative law judge ruled that the Perkinses acted properly when they placed Luke at Boston Higashi. The judge found that the district failed to provide the boy with a “free appropriate public education” as required by federal law.
The Perkinses spent $200,000 from January 2004 through Oct. 5, 2005. The district will not pay that amount before the case is resolved, Stuller said.
Julie Perkins said she is grateful that some costs will be paid. “Everything helps,” she said. “We’re very thankful.”
The case has captured the attention of school districts, legislators and educators wrangling over how to pay for the growing cost of special education.
State Rep. Keith King, R-Colorado Springs, said he plans to introduce legislation next year to give districts additional state funds for the highest-cost special-education students.
While enrolled in the Thompson district, Luke learned daily living skills but did not retain them at home. At home, he ate only yogurt, crackers and croutons, wandered the house at night and spoke very few words. And despite being toilet trained at school, at home, he had regular nighttime accidents.
Luke’s problems were so severe, his parents said, that he needed to have 24-hour care to retain skills.
Jay, however, accused the parents of not reinforcing skills learned in school.
Julie Perkins said she and her family have always followed through, but Luke needed residential placement in order not to regress. A state hearing officer and the administrative law judge agreed.
“The point that keeps getting lost is that the placement was the issue,” said Perkins. “Where can Luke learn?”
Since enrolling at Boston Higashi, Luke has been toilet trained and has participated in activities such as going to restaurants and hiking, Jeff Perkins said.
So far, the district has exhausted its $113,000 legal budget fighting the Perkins family, and it has had to transfer an additional $90,000 from elsewhere in the budget to cover expenses, Jay said.
Staff writer Karen Rouse can be reached at 303-820-1684 or krouse@denverpost.com.
