Increasing the dialogue among stakeholders in New Jersey’s special education system

A New Jersey Administrative Law Judge ruled that a 6th grader with disabilities could be removed from school in connection with behavior that violated school rules.

The case involves an 11-year-old boy who had been accused by his Essex County school district of harassment, intimation, and bullying. The boy’s mother had been asked to pick her son up from school; she was told that the boy was a danger to others students and that he could not return until he had received a psychiatric evaluation.

The boy’s mother sought emergent relief, requesting that her son be returned to school.

Citing that the charges were indeed substantial and that removal from school would not cause irreparable harm the judge denied the parent’s request to have her son return to school. The judge did not grant emergent relief and agreed with the school district that the pre-teen’s behavior was not a manifestation of his learning disabilities. OAL 7823-14