O’Melveny Wins Special Education Case for Selective Mutism Student

An O’Melveny team and Advocates for Children won an important victory on behalf of a disabled child and his mother. The family had been forced to pay for the child’s treatment when his public school refused to provide the appropriate services. 

O’Melveny persuaded an Independent Hearing Officer that the Department of Education had failed to ensure a free and appropriate education during the child’s first three years of schooling. The child has selective mutism, a rare anxiety disorder that renders him largely speechless in school although he is fully verbal at home. He spent nearly two full school years functionality silent in class before the DOE agreed to conduct a special-education evaluation. 

Even after the diagnosis, the DOE failed to provide the necessary therapies. Frustrated, his mother paid private providers for services. Unable to cover the costs, she turned to Advocates for Children, which brought O’Melveny into the case as pro bono co-counsel. O’Melveny filed a complaint with the DOE seeking reimbursement for the incurred and prospective costs. Settlement talks were unsuccessful, so the O’Melveny team conducted a full adversarial hearing on the merits of the child’s claims. The Independent Hearing officer ruled in the child’s favor, awarding the family both the reimbursements and prospective services requested.