The average cost of a hearing in some states is higher such as California where the cost is $18,600, according to the GAO Report No 030-897, Special Education""Numbers of Formal Disputes (2003). A hearing officer alone on average costs $9000.
If parents are unhappy with the outcome of the due process proceeding, they may bring a civil action. In a 2004, Utah case that involved the provision of a preschool program for an autistic child, the parents declined a public school's recommendation to place their autistic child in a public school because the child was doing well in a private preschool with the additional use of a supplementary aide and an at-home Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA) program, which the public school did not offer.
The child's ABA program was provided by five different therapists and was structured as follows: (1) ten hours per week at the mainstream preschool with an assistant as her aide; (2) ten to twenty hours per week with an assistant as part of her at-home, one-on-one ABA program; (3) an average of five to ten more hours on at-home, one-on-one ABA instruction with her other therapists; (4) in the summer approximately seven to ten hours per week on peer play with a tutor who observed her interactions and redirected her behavior when needed; (5) starting in the next summer, two and one-half to three and one-half hours per week in a play group with tutors who observed and redirected her conduct.
Evidence in the case showed the child's supplementary aide and ABA program had cost between $50,000 to $63,800 per year, while the school's entire preschool budget was only $360,000 to $400,000 per year.
The breakdown of the costs of the ABA program included: (1) forty hours per week of ABA services; (2) seven and one-half hours per week of preparation time for ABA therapists to plan for individual sessions; (3) two and one-half hours per week for a team meeting with the child's five ABA therapists; (4) one day per month for an ABA consultant to train the five therapists; (5) materials for ABA program; (6) one hour of speech therapy per week; and (7) occupational therapy as needed.
The court ruled in favor of the parents and found they were entitled to reimbursement for the reasonable costs of the ABA program and the aide's services, and were also eligible for reasonable attorneys' fees and litigation costs.
In a 2001 lawsuit involving a Toledo Ohio day care center, the symptoms of the child's autism that were relevant to the difficulties that arose with the child in day care included repetitive activities, movements such as flapping his hands, pounding his chest, pounding his head, and running into walls.
If noises or other stimuli overloaded the child, he would cry, run in circles, or run to hide from the noise. The child also exhibited violent and destructive behavior when he became extremely frustrated, including hitting himself, other children, and a counselor, and biting other children, cursing, throwing objects, chasing children, and urinating on the floor.
The day care facility did not have staff specifically trained to handle the needs of an autistic child and after 20 months, the center sent the parents a letter stating the child would be terminated due to their inability to handle the child.
In the end, the court ruled in favor of the parents and ordered the day care center to reinstate the child in the program and send staff members to specialized training to teach them how to handle the autistic child.
In a 2005, State of Virginia case that involved a preschool program, the autistic child was easily frustrated, which often led to disruptive behaviors such as crying, biting, slapping, kicking, and sweeping items off a table.
Like many autistic children, the child in this case would engage in self-stimulatory behavior, referred to as stimming, which consists of repetitive patterns of behavior such as flapping of the hands, rocking back and forth, or repeating a word or a sound.
The child engaged in several different forms of stimming, including humming and wiggling long slender objects between his fingers while staring at them out of the corner of his eye. Without intervention, the child would engage in constant stimming all day long.
After the child was diagnosed with autism, his parents enrolled him in the private Faison School right before his third birthday because it used the ABA approach in teaching autistic children.
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