PORTLAND, Maine — Portland Public Schools has filed a federal lawsuit against a set of parents after it was ordered to reimburse them more than $120,000 to send their child to a private school that specializes in learning disabilities.

The case, filed in the U.S. District Court of Maine on Nov. 22, asks a judge to overturn a Maine Department of Education administrative ruling that required the school district to reimburse the parents, who argued their child did not receive appropriate special education at Portland schools.

The names of the parents are sealed in court and state records. Their attorney, Richard O’Meara, said in an email that they were surprised by the district’s decision to spend taxpayer money on a challenge to the state’s decision.

“They intend to vigorously defend the lawsuit filed against them as the state’s decision in their favor is carefully crafted and reached the correct determination,” O’Meara wrote.

Portland Superintendent Ryan Scallon said he couldn’t provide details about why the district decided to appeal this case but said, “there is an application of the law that differs from our opinion of it that could have significant impact.”

The student enrolled in Lyseth Elementary School for kindergarten in 2017 and participated in a Spanish immersion program, where all classes are taught in Spanish and parents are tasked with teaching English skills at home, according to state records. After two years, the parents asked that their child be placed in a regular class, where he tested low on English literacy assessments and began reading intervention.

In 2021, the state’s findings say, teachers discussed the student’s regression in reading, but the parents never heard about those concerns. In 2022, after learning their child had been placed in the 4th percentile for reading, the parents sought outside testing and tutoring, eventually requesting a meeting with the school to establish an individualized education program, or IEP.

The student was found eligible for special education services in June 2022 and received individualized phonics instruction and other specialized education during the next school year. But at the end of the year, the parents were still unhappy with the progress.

They pulled their child out of Lyseth to enroll in the Aucocisco School and Learning Center, a nonprofit in Freeport for students with learning disabilities who struggled in other settings. It’s a state-approved special purpose private school, where annual tuition is $52,500.

But it wasn’t until this year that the parents requested a hearing with the state under the Individuals with Disabilities Act, or IDEA, arguing that the school failed to assess their child’s learning disability for years, despite knowing that he struggled with reading.

At the state hearing in June, independent hearing officer Sheila Mayberry found the district was responsible for failing to properly evaluate the student for special education, and ordered it to pay the family $121,168. That includes two years of tuition at Aucocisco, as well as the cost of evaluations and travel.

The school district is now appealing that decision, alleging the hearing officer violated a two-year statute of limitations on requests for hearing on IDEA violations and didn’t account for disruptions to the student’s educational progress like the Spanish immersion class and pandemic.

It also accuses the parents of plotting with their attorney to seek reimbursement, and argues the hearing officer failed to account for that obstruction to the process. The lawsuit points to a message sent before the IEP meeting in 2022 where the parents said they planned to remain “passive” during the meeting and hope the student wasn’t found eligible for services so “that way we can just send him to (Aucocisco) and sue them for reimbursement.”

The suit also alleges the student’s reading fluency has decreased over the last two years at Aucocisco. “Put simply, this was a failed placement,” it reads.

Scallon said when a student has an IEP, decisions about their education are made by a team, including parents, teachers and other service providers. When that team doesn’t agree on the plan for the student’s education, they can file a complaint and move to mediation. But if mediation fails, the case can be heard by a state hearing officer.

The Maine Department of Education allows parents to request a state investigation or a due process hearing when they believe a public school has violated IDEA, the federal law that governs the education of students with disabilities. The state publishes the outcomes of those complaints — in 2023, there were two due process hearings, and in both 2022 and 2021 there were none. So far this year, there’s just the one.

Portland’s Senior Executive Director of Strategy Sarah Warren said there were nine cases filed by Portland Public Schools families last year, and just three went beyond the mediation stage.

Scallon and Warren also described reimbursement situations as rare.

When a school district is unable to meet the special needs of a student, they may pay for the student to attend an out-of-district program, a non-district school with specialized services like The Margaret Murphy Center for Children in Saco, Woodfords’ School in Westbrook or Aucocisco.

Warren said Portland Public Schools currently pays for 41 students to attend out-of-district placements, and there are 19 actively awaiting placement. But that directive usually comes from the district, which chooses to pay for the placement on its own. State-ordered reimbursements are “incredibly rare,” Warren said; the district is paying just two this year.

Warren said there’s no doubt that issues like staffing affect the ability to provide special education services. But she said that overall, the district is able to meet the needs of students, and said Portland schools is working with outside consultants on an assessment that it will use to inform its approach to special education.

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