School Board to Plan Compensation Appeal

LAKELAND | Polk County School Board members and board attorney Wes Bridges will meet later this month to discuss appealing a ruling by an administrative judge that would force the district to pay as much as $720,000 for failing to educate an autistic student.

The ruling requires the district to pay up to $144,000 a year for five years to send Andrew "Drew" Sammons to a private school. The expense includes a teacher, an aide and classroom.

The district was also ordered to pay for any behavioral therapy that is needed.

Bridges said he had questions about the amount of education Sammons was awarded.

"There are some parameters established in case law having to do with how compensatory education should be measured," Bridges said. "The bottom line is that it's not a day for a day or a year for a year."

Board members may be reluctant to continue spending for legal fees on a case they've appealed several times during a time when money is tight and the district has already paid $786,782 in legal fees.

If the ruling stands, the district could end up spending $1.8 million, including $300,000 that Judge William F. Quattlebaum ordered the district to pay the Sammons family for their legal bills.

When asked whether she would consider the tight budget during talks with Bridges, board member Brenda Reddout said she "would consider everything," including the number of years the lawsuit has lasted and what the judge said in his ruling.

Board member Kay Fields also said she would consider the amount of money spent on the case.

"It's our responsibility to look at the whole scope of things and do what's in the best interest of the district," Fields said.

Bill and Janie Sammons have fought the School District for four years, contending their son was allowed to graduate from high school without receiving the academic instruction or training in developmental skills that the law requires disabled students be provided.

In a 20-page ruling in April, Judge Quattlebaum sided with the Lakeland family, saying the School District's failure to provide a proper education for Drew Sammons was not the "accidental result of inadequate educational planning."

"It is clear (the district) was either unable or unwilling to provide the appropriate services to which (Sammons) was entitled," Quattlebaum wrote in April.

The Sammons sued the district in 2004, saying their son was forced to leave school without the education and training he should have received.

The district has maintained that Drew Sammons fulfilled the requirements for graduation, including passing the FCAT.

Drew Sammons was diagnosed with Asperger's syndrome, a form of autism, when he was a young child. He attended Polk schools since kindergarten.

[ John Chambliss can be reached at john.chambliss@theledger.com or 863-802-7588. ]