Spring ‘21: Evolving Law
Compensatory Education & Recovery Services:
COVID-19 CONSIDERATIONS FOR STUDENTS ON
IEPs & 504 Plans by LAUREN A. SABO
On March 12, 2020, Governor DeWine ordered all of Ohio’s public, community and private K-12 school buildings to be closed due to the ongoing coronavirus health crisis. If a school district closed to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and did not provide educational services to the general student population (whether via in person or virtual instruction), then the district was not required to provide services to students with disabilities during that time period.
However, once schools resumed, the district, to the greatest extent possible, was required to make every effort to provide special education and related services to the child in accordance with their Individualized Education Program (IEP) or 504 Plan.i Schools had a lot of flexibility in how to provide these services to students throughout the pandemic, but ultimately, the requirement for schools to provide Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) to students receiving special education services was not waived due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Compensatory Services Although compensatory services (also called compensatory education or comp ed) are not addressed in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) or other federal or state regulations, most state education agencies have released guidance surrounding compensatory education as well as the potential for recovery services that may be needed as a result of COVID-19 school closures. Compensatory services are educational services above and beyond what is normally due to a student, resulting from a failure of the school to provide those services under a child’s IEP or 504 Plan. The purpose is to place the student in the position they would have been in if the school had provided the appropriate services, or to “compensate”
54 | Columbus Bar L aw yers Quarterly Spring 2021
