R. F., a Minor Child, By and Through Her Parents and Next Friends, E. F. and H. F., et al. v. Cecil County Public Schools

This case raises the question of whether, pursuant to 20 U.S.C. § 1415(E)(ii),1 a hearing officer may find a denial of a free appropriate education solely because the school district’s violations of the Act’s procedural safeguards “significantly impeded the parents’ opportunity to participate in the decisionmaking process regarding the provision of a free appropriate public education to the parents’ child,” or whether the parents must prove separately and additionally that the child was denied a free appropriate education or deprived of educational benefit as a matter of fact. 1 20 U.S.C. § 1415(E)(ii) provides that, for procedural issues, a hearing officer may find that a child did not receive a free appropriate education “only if the procedural inadequacies (I) impeded the child’s right to a free appropriate public education; (II) significantly impeded the parents’ opportunity to participate in the decisionmaking process regarding the provision of a free appropriate public education to the parents’ child; or (III) caused a deprivation of education benefits.