Opinion ID: 732384
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Reasonableness of DOE's Disability/Achievement Delay Distinction

Text: 36 Moreover, just as the DOE's responses do not control whether parents who request evaluations may avail themselves of procedural safeguards, they do not justify ignoring the IDEA's procedural protections when the district initiates non-Chapter 36 testing. The DOE contends that it administered the non-Chapter 36 tests to develop teaching strategies to better address children's achievement delays, rather than to determine whether children were disabled. We have no quarrel with the proposition that school officials may draw distinctions between students on the basis of the perceived severity of their problems, and that, on the basis of such distinctions, they may design and administer different types of tests in order to measure different student abilities or impairments. We find, however, that the DOE makes no clear distinction between situations that call for a Chapter 36 test and those in which a non-Chapter 36 test is adequate. The distinction that the DOE attempts to draw between the two types of evaluations appears ad hoc and subjective. 37 In fact, in some cases the DOE treats the non-Chapter 36 evaluation requests as requests for comprehensive testing. It was in response to the Williams' and the Pasatiempos' requests for non-Department of Education evaluations that the DOE agreed to administer Chapter 36 tests. And Peter Ferreira's referral for a non-Chapter 36 evaluation was denied as an initial comprehensive evaluation request. This fusion of procedures for responding to the different types of evaluation requests suggests that the boundaries between the two types of tests are not delineated as clearly as the DOE now argues. 38 We also think that the district court overlooked the confusion that the DOE's non-Chapter 36 procedures may engender, particularly with respect to the Notification of Special Evaluation that is sent to parents when a non-Chapter 36 test is to be administered. The notice may be less problematic when a parent has completed a Non-Department of Education Evaluation Request, and presumably knows that the notice refers to non-Chapter 36 evaluation. But when children are referred for evaluations by their schools, the form may not suffice to inform parents that their children are not receiving comprehensive special education tests. 39 The DOE has an affirmative duty to locate and identify potentially disabled children for evaluation. The failure to distinguish between Chapter 36 and non-Chapter 36 procedures has undermined its ability to meet that obligation. In light of the DOE's failure to develop clear standards for determining which students are to receive Chapter 36 testing, we hold that whenever individualized testing is contemplated, regardless of the DOE's subjective or objective beliefs about a child's disability, the parents must be informed that the child will be tested. The DOE must explain the distinction between Chapter 36 and non-Chapter 36 testing, and it must inform parents of how they can challenge both the DOE's decision to give or not give a Chapter 36 test and the DOE's ultimate conclusion on whether the child is disabled. See 20 U.S.C. § 1415(b)(1)(C)-(D); Ash v. Lake Oswego Sch. Dist., 980 F.2d 585, 589 (9th Cir.1992). 40 Accordingly, we find the DOE's procedures for choosing between Chapter 36 and non-Chapter 36 tests inadequate. We remand the matter to the district court, and direct the entry of judgment in favor of Parents and Students on the question of whether the DOE's procedures for selecting non-Chapter 36 evaluations violate the IDEA and § 504. 41