What happened
A D.C. federal judge has sent part of a student's Individuals with Disabilities Education Act challenge back to a hearing officer, adopting a magistrate judge's recommendation in full after neither side objected.
U.S. District Judge Beryl A. Howell granted in part and denied in part both the student's summary judgment motion and the District of Columbia's cross-motion, leaving intact parts of a D.C. Superintendent Hearing Officer's decision while requiring further explanation on two remedy issues.
The case was brought by A.H., a minor student, through his mother, Mercedes Coleman, and challenged certain findings and remedies ordered by the hearing officer under the IDEA. The magistrate judge recommended affirming several challenged portions of the hearing officer's findings, according to the order.
But the court said remand was warranted because the hearing officer "failed adequately to explain" the conclusion that A.H. was not entitled to extended school year services and the calculation of compensatory education. Judge Howell said that, after reviewing the report and recommendation and the underlying record, she concurred with the magistrate judge's recommendations.
The order states that no party filed an objection to the report and recommendation before the deadline expired, and that any objections were therefore deemed waived. Judge Howell directed the hearing officer to revisit the two issues in accordance with the report's guidance.
The clerk was directed to close the district court case, and the order states that it is final and appealable.