The family of an autistic teenager and the Moorestown School District are on opposing sides of a long and costly court battle that experts say could have an impact on children's access to special education in states beyond New Jersey.
In a strongly worded opinion this year, U.S. District Judge Renee Bumb held that Moorestown was wrong when it refused to provide an Individualized Education Plan (IEP) for the boy on the ground that he was not enrolled in a district school.
The district appealed Bumb's decision to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia. An earlier ruling by a state court judge also held that the student should have been given an IEP.
The boy's family recently filed a petition seeking more than $200,000 from the district to cover its legal expenses, as directed by Bumb.
John Comegno, the district's attorney, said the case had cost Moorestown about $150,000 in legal fees. Because of the significance of the issues, Comegno said, his firm had provided an additional $125,000 in legal services free of charge.
Scott Duman, the boy's father, said he thought the district continued to fight the case because it wanted to put up barriers to special-education students enrolling.
Special-needs students "are expensive kids to educate, and [district officials] would be happy to have it be someone else's problem," said Duman, a software company executive.
"As a resident of Moorestown and a taxpayer, it's very aggravating to me, because they are spending money on legal fees that they could be spending money on providing for kids," he said.
An IEP is a document based on testing and other assessments in which a district sets forth its education goals for a special-needs student and the services it will provide to help the student reach those goals.
The Moorestown Board of Education prides itself on "the appropriate and successful" special programs it provides students, according to a statement provided by Comegno.
But Comegno disagreed that the law required the district to provide the same level of services, including an in-depth IEP, for a township resident who is not enrolled in a district school.
The district provided services to Duman's son at a less-intensive level while he attended a private school in Moorestown, but the family insisted on a full IEP.
