Sparta High School Teen with Autism Temporarily Barred from School

Sparta High School in Sparta Township, New Jersey

The Sparta School District has obtained a temporary period of home instruction for a 15-year-old high school student with autism, who is barred from physically attending his school during this period but will still be allowed to try out for the school’s golf team.

The order was placed on February 21, and was issued by an administrative law judge after the Sparta School District submitted a petition for emergency relief on February 10 seeking to bar the boy for at least 45 days, because the school officials had argued that he was a danger to himself as well as to the other students and staff, from participating in all school and extracurricular activities and compelling his parents to accept a program of home instruction.

Until last year, the Sparta School District had been sending the teen out-of-district to the Shepard School, a special education school in Morris County. However, he returned last year to the Sparta School District because his parents “were assured that with a behaviorist in place and an aide, he could handle high school.”

School officials testified that the boy, described as being on the autism spectrum but highly functioning, had a “somewhat successful” freshman year in which he also participated in extracurricular activities in his school.

However, school officials said that he encountered problems of a social nature during his sophomore year, including an incident where he broke a desk, and they removed him from school and had him taught at home instead.

At least two staff members testified that the presence of the teen could compromise the safety and welfare of other students, but the golf team coach said he felt it would not be problem for the boy to take part on the team since the boy’s father was always present at his practices, tryouts and tournaments if he made the team.

However, the boy’s parents still opposed the school district’s petition, arguing that cutting off their son from his peers would be unfair and damaging to him.

Judge Andrew M. Baron, who heard the case, found that the school district had met its burden under the law of showing that the school would suffer irreparable harm if the boy was not removed and placed on temporary home instruction. But the judge made an exception allowing the boy to take part on the golf team “as long as his father accompanies him to all activities at all times and provides separate transportation for him independent of the team bus.”

Based on the February 21 date of the order, the 45-day home instruction period will extend through April 6. During this time, the judge wrote, “the parties are also ordered to continue to meet and confer as to next steps for the boy’s possible re-entry to school and/or placement with an outside program.”