Colorado School District Not Responsible for Private Tuition
The U.S. Supreme Court has rejected a request to review the case involving Luke Perkins. That means that a 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that said the Thompson district was doing enough to meet Luke's needs will stand.
Luke's parents, Jeff and Julie Perkins, had argued that Berthoud Elementary was not doing enough to help Luke after he enrolled there in 2002. They instead enrolled him at the private Boston Higashi School for Autism and sued to have the district pay for his tuition.
Several lower courts backed the Perkins family, ordering the Thompson School District to pay $130,000-a-year private-school tuition for the severely autistic boy whose educational needs weren't being met in a traditional classroom.
At the trial level, Judge Walker Miller dismissed the school district's appeal that the cost of tuition at the private Boston Higashi School for Autism was above and beyond the "free adequate public education" required of all school districts. Miller upheld an Individuals With Disability Education Act requirement, which says that students be educated in the "least restrictive appropriate educational environment."
The boy has been attending the Boston school since January 2004, and the Thompson School District has been footing his tuition along with other fees. Counselors at the public school had worked with his parents, but Luke's disabilities were severe and getting worse. At home and at school, Luke had extremely destructive behavior.
The Board of Education won its appeal in the 10th Circuit Court and the Perkins sought review by the U.S. Supreme Court.