East Brunswick: Trenton owes school district $157k for aide to special ed student
EAST BRUNSWICK - The state Department of Education has ruled that Trenton owes the East Brunswick school district $157,052 for the cost of assigning an aide to a special education student.
The dispute dates to 2016 when Trenton and East Brunswick entered into a tuition and transportation costs agreement for the student who had been removed by the state Division of Child Protection and Permanancy from a Trenton residence and placed in a resource family home in East Brunswick. The child began attending school in East Brunswick in June 2016 and has remained in the school, according to court documents.
Trenton has paid East Brunswick $134,154 in tuition for the student, but balked at paying the cost of a one-to-one aide as specified in the student's Individualized Education Plan.
Trenton argued before Administrative Law Judge Tricia Caliguire that it had no obligation to enter into a contract for the one-on-one aide. Trenton said that it contracts with an outside vendor for its one-on-one aides for purposes of economy and that its agreement with East Brunswick does not bar Trenton from hiring its own less expensive aide.
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Because of that, according to the decision by the state Department of Education, Trenton said it owes East Brunswick only the lower amount of money it would have paid its own vendor.
Trenton also contended that the price East Brunswick was charging for the aide was "not reasonable" compared to the lower amount it pays for its aides.
But Caliguire rejected that argument, saying East Brunswick had no obligation to use an one-on-one aide provided by Trenton. Caliguire also decided that Trenton could not pay East Brunswick the lower amount it would have paid for an aide.
The Department of Education agreed with Caliguire, saying that there is no "reasonableness requirement" for the cost of providing a service. The state also said that Trenton can not require East Brunswick to use its own aides.
"Even if such a requirement was imposed, Trenton has not proffered any evidence that East Brunswick's rate is unreasonable," the state wrote in its decision.
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The state noted that East Brunswick's per diem rate of $181.40 is lower than a per diem rate that the state had approved in a previous case.
"The obligation to pay arises from the law, not from a contract," the state wrote in its decision.
Trenton has the option of appealing the decision in Superior Court.
Staff Writer Mike Deak has covered New Jersey education for nearly four decades. He can be reached at 908-243-6607 or mdeak@mycentraljersey.com