The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, in R.E. v. New York City Department of Education, Docket Nos. 11-1266-cv, 11-1474-cv, 11-655-cv, on Sept. 20, 2012, set an important precedent in tuition reimbursement cases, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEIA). The Second Circuit ruled that, in evaluating an Individualized Education Program (IEP) for a student with a disability, courts and administrative officers must examine an IEP prospectively as of the time of its creation.
The decision clarified that courts and administrative officers must not consider retrospective, meaning backward-looking, testimony from a school district that certain services not listed on the IEP would actually have been provided to the child if he had attended the school district’s proposed placement.
