Jeremy Wartenberg Case Summary

The Capistrano Unified School District took the parents of Jeremy Wartenberg, Wayne and Charlene Wartenberg to court in their refusal to pay for Jeremy’s private school tuition, fees spent at the private school, and attorney fees. The school district expresses that Jeremy’s behavior comes from his own willfulness to misbehave not his disability. The school psychologist, although acknowledging that Jeremy had a learning disability of attention deficit disorder (ADD), which allowed for an IEP and services, felt that it was not sever enough to be a contributing factor to his behavior. He felt that Jeremy’s primary behavior was largely related to his failure to work, cooperate, and school truancies rather than his primarily disability of ADD. He acknowledged that Jeremy’s behavior could be a contributing factor of his Conduct Disorder, which is not covered under a learning …show more content…
The District Court found the Capistrano Unified School District in violation of providing Jeremy Wartenberg with FAPE. They establish that based on the evidence presented, Jeremy’s behavior was a result of his primary learning disability, ADD. They stated that his unsuccessful school experience was caused by his ADD, not his purposeful negative conduct, yet, the two items could not be separated. Furthermore, it was found that the IEP was not appropriate in servicing him with a proper learning environment and did not satisfy part of the Rowley Test to determine FAPE. As a result, Capistrano Unified was ordered to pay Jeremy’s parents for tuition and transportation expenses to the Mardan Center. Lastly, the court ruled that the school district pay for the Wartenberg’s legal fees because the written settlement offer was not more favorable (West Law, 1995). Thus, the Capistrano Unified School District lost the entire case and paid an upwards of five-hundred thousand dollars (Gubernick and Conlin,