The Third Circuit dove into an alphabet soup of education law. The case was brought under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). IDEA mandates a free appropriate public education (FAPE) for disabled students. A FAPE under IDEA is determined through an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for the particular disabled student. The student was sent to a private school at the public school’s expense because the public school could not provide a FAPE. When that student transferred schools, the new district kept the student in the public school and purported to honor a FAPE, notwithstanding a “stay put” provision in IDEA, providing that eligible students must remain in their current educational settings during certain procedures. However, IDEA provides that students making an intrastate transfer with a previously existing IEP shall be provided a free appropriate public education. Here, the Third Circuit held that the public school provided comparable services and that the school district was permitted under IDEA to keep the student in the public school.
