District Must Pay for Man’s Schooling; Court Order Put Disabled Student in Oconomowoc

By AMY HETZNER

The Oconomowoc Area School District must pay the educational costs of a disabled man placed by Winnebago County court order in a residential treatment center within district boundaries, an appeals court has decided.

Officials involved in the case say it could affect other school districts that host residential care and education centers, which often serve the most drastically disabled and costly students.

“Special education tuitions can run thousands, if not hundreds of thousands of dollars,” Oconomowoc Superintendent Patricia Neudecker said.

The ruling affirms a decision by the state Department of Public Instruction that transferred the financial burden of the man’s education at the Oconomowoc Developmental Training Center to the Oconomowoc district once he reached 18 and moved to an adult residential facility located in the district.

The DPI had argued that while state law exempts local school districts from paying the costs of students placed by court order in residential care centers such as the one in Oconomowoc, that exemption does not apply to adult students living in community facilities.

Neudecker said her district challenged the state’s decision to assign to it the educational costs of a person who had never been enrolled in the school system or lived there before his court- ordered placement, not only because of the financial burden but also because of the larger implications.

The Oconomowoc treatment center specializes in serving youths and young adults from around the state who have been diagnosed with both developmental disabilities and emotional disturbances. “To us, it’s a bigger issue that we’re trying to raise the question for the state to consider,” Neudecker said, “because this would apply to any school district that would have a highly specialized training facility in their boundaries.”

Robert Simandl, an attorney for the Oconomowoc facility, agreed that the court’s decision could transcend district boundaries.

“I think it’s going to be something which is going to trickle down to everyone — anyone who has similar facts and circumstances where there are placements for individuals who have special needs,” he said.

The court decision, which was filed Thursday, does not give many details about the individual involved, identifying the student only as B.W. According to the decision, he was placed at the Oconomowoc treatment facility after a child in need of protection court proceeding in Winnebago County in 2002.

B.W. resided at the center until October 2004, when he turned 18. At that point, he transferred to an adult residential facility in Oconomowoc while he continued to attend the center’s school. Special education law guarantees students with disabilities a free public education until they graduate or reach 21 years of age.

In upholding the DPI’s decision to assign B.W.’s educational costs to the Oconomowoc district after he reached adulthood, a three- judge panel of the District 4 state Court of Appeals sitting in Madison relied on a court ruling from 1889. That ruling states that a local school district is responsible for paying the educational costs if the individual’s primary reason for living in the district is not for education. The Oconomowoc district had argued it was not responsible for such costs under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act.

None of the contacted parties involved in the case would elaborate on the types of services the man received from the Oconomowoc facility other than education, citing confidentiality rules.

“B.W. resided in Oconomowoc not to go to school there, this program was for his disability,” said Lori Lubinsky, the attorney representing the Winneconne School District, which was where the man previously had attended school and where his father resides.

The Oconomowoc district’s court challenge targeted not only the DPI and Winneconne district, but also Winnebago County and the Oconomowoc treatment facility.

The court proceedings have not interfered with the student’s education, however, Neudecker said.

“It’s not really about him or about what’s right ethically,” she said. “It’s really about the future of such arrangements in our state, and who’s going to pay and who’s going to be responsible.”

The district has not decided whether it will try to appeal the ruling to the Wisconsin Supreme Court.

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