On May 18th, 2022, KATU News aired its first of a three-part story about a mother and her daughter’s legal battle with the Lincoln County School District for a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). Sequoia Chavez is a high schooler with Prader-Willi Syndrome (PWS), which results in her having a constant sensation of insatiable hunger. Seeing, smelling, or even speaking about food causes her great anxiety and behavioral incidents. Due to her PWS, Sequoia needs a total-food secure environment in order to ensure access to her education and safety. So far, an Administrative Law Judge and the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals have determined that the District failed to provide Sequoia a FAPE and have ordered the District to place her at a private school that specializes in working with students with PWS. The District is expected to continue paying for Sequoia’s private placement, unless it can find a way to provide her with a total-food secure environment. The story debunks the District’s gross exaggeration of what it has to pay to send Sequoia to her private placement and discusses the challenges that Sequoia and her mother, Kelly, have endured to access Sequoia’s education.
To find out more, you can find the link to KATU’s report below: