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Hearing Letter 27: The Tuition-Reimbursement Ledger

When to Use It

Use this when you placed your child privately and want the cost back. It is the highest-value and highest-risk claim in the volume, and this ledger keeps all three moving parts on one page: the money, the three-part case, and the ten-day notice that, if you skip it without an exception, gives the district an equitable objection that can reduce the award.

The case runs on the three-part framework: the district's program was not appropriate, your private placement was appropriate, and the equities favor reimbursement (Burlington School Committee v. Department of Education, 471 U.S. 359 (1985); Florence County School District Four v. Carter, 510 U.S. 7 (1993); Forest Grove School District v. T.A., 557 U.S. 230 (2009)). In New York, the district must prove that its offered program provided a free appropriate public education, but you carry the burden on whether your private placement was appropriate for your child (N.Y. Educ. Law § 4404(1)(c)). And the notice rule: reimbursement may be reduced or denied on equitable grounds if you did not tell the district before removing the child, by either of two routes (34 C.F.R. § 300.148(d); H-Letter 18 is the notice itself). Notice reduces one equitable objection the district can raise; it is not a jurisdictional bar to the claim, and it has exceptions. The written-notice route carries the ten-business-day clock: written notice must reach the district at least ten business days before removal (§ 300.148(d)(1)(ii)). The IEP-meeting route does not run on that clock: it is satisfied if you stated your rejection of the district's placement, and your intent to enroll privately at public expense, at the most recent IEP meeting you attended before removing the child (§ 300.148(d)(1)(i)). And the reduction does not apply in every case: it cannot be imposed if the district prevented you from giving notice, if the district never gave you the procedural-safeguards notice, or if giving notice would likely have resulted in physical harm to your child; and a hearing officer may decline to reduce the award if you cannot read or write in English, or if compliance would likely have resulted in serious emotional harm to your child (34 C.F.R. § 300.148(e)).

Use it with: H-Tool 67 (tuition reimbursement: the three-part case, and the burden that flips).