Hansen

FINDINGS OF FACT AND CONCLUSIONS OF LAW

BACKGROUND

This action involves a dispute about the appropriate education for Andrew Adams. Andy is a fifth-grade student who resides within the geographical boundaries of the Napa Valley Unified School District (“NVUSD” or “District”). He is nearly twelve years old, and was enrolled in District schools for six years. During that time, he repeated Kindergarten and third grade. He was identified at the end of the second grade as an individual with exceptional needs entitled to special education and related services under federal and state law. Andy is of average intelligence, but has a learning disability, specifically identified as “specific language disability,” but more commonly referred to as dyslexia.

During his two years in the third grade, Andy was enrolled in a regular class, and had an “individualized education program” (“IEP”) that called for daily contact with a resource specialist. From September 1982 through March 1984, he was pulled out of his regular class for up to sixty minutes a day to work with the resource specialist or an aide. In March 1984, pursuant to his mother’s request for more intense services, he began to work…