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Hearing Letter 26: The Compensatory-Education Worksheet

When to Use It

Use this when your child was owed services and did not get them, and you want the make-up ordered. It does two jobs a bare hour count cannot. First, it prices the shortfall service by service, in minutes, from the district's own logs against the IEP that was in force. Second, and this is what wins the remedy, it turns that arithmetic into a make-whole ask: what your child actually needs to be placed where they would have been if the services had been delivered.

Compensatory education is an equitable, individualized remedy rather than an automatic hour-for-hour credit. The request should address what is reasonably calculated to place the child in the position the child likely would have occupied without the denial, supported by record evidence about the child’s needs and the proposed services (P. v. Newington Board of Education, 546 F.3d 111, 123 (2d Cir. 2008); Reid v. District of Columbia, 401 F.3d 516, 524 (D.C. Cir. 2005), cited as persuasive authority in SRO Appeal Nos. 25-143 and 25-180). The minutes column is evidence of the service gap, not an automatic minimum award. Build it from documents you hold, and identify missing logs without treating their absence alone as a finding.

Accepted open as of July 25, 2026: in SRO Appeal No. 25-180, issued December 9, 2025, the SRO placed the burden on a parent seeking parent-selected private compensatory services to prove that those services were appropriate, while stating that no court or other authoritative body had resolved that allocation. Treat this as current SRO practice, not a settled rule from higher authority, and support the proposed provider, services, amount, and fit with affirmative evidence.

Use it with: H-Tool 66 (compensatory education: proving the make-up your child is owed).