Charter school violated IDEA by dis-enrolling student during pendency of a hearing

In an unpublished opinion the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a charter school violated the stay put provisions of the IDEA by dis-enrolling a student with Down syndrome after she missed 10 consecutive days of school. (R.B. v Mastery Charter School, 113 LRP 30422 (3rd Cir 2013, unpublished). Pennsylvania state law required that students be removed from enrollment after missing 10 consecutive school days. Here, the student had missed eighteen months, but the parent had requested a due process hearing. The Charter School argued that after missing the consecutive days of school, based on state law, the student became the responsibility of the school district of residence, not the charter school.
The 3rd Circuit upheld a district court decision, R.B. v Mastery Charter School, 762 F. Supp. 2d 745 (E.D. Penn 2010), that found dis-enrolling the student violated the IDEA. The courts reasoned that stay-put  during the pendency of a hearing, was the  placement identified in the student's last implemented IEP. Here, that was the Charter School placement. The IDEA preempted the state law requiring dis-enrollment after 10 consecutive days of absence. The Court said that to do otherwise would allow schools to  unilaterally change a placement  and then argue the new change was stay put and the status quo.