Opinion ID: 507855
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Commuting Distances

Text: 12 California next argues that its expenditures for food and lodging were necessary and reasonable, because the District is so large that it was unreasonable to require participants to commute to and from the conference sites on a daily basis. California represents that a normal commuting distance is 25 miles. Even if we were to accept this representation, however, seven of the conferences were District-sponsored and could have been located within the District. California presented no evidence to show the number of participants who would have had to endure a 25-mile, or longer, commute to such centrally located conference sites. Thus, there was no evidence upon which the Board could have determined that it was necessary or reasonable to pay food and lodging costs due to the long commute participants had to make to attend these conferences. California had the obligation to present evidence to support its long commute theory. See 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1234a(b); 34 C.F.R. Sec. 78.16 (1981). It did not do so. We, therefore, reject California's long commute argument as it applies to the seven District-sponsored conferences. 13 The two state-sponsored conferences, however, require a different analysis. These two conferences were held in Anaheim, outside the District, and were sponsored by a statewide organization. The Department implicitly admitted that Anaheim was outside the normal commuting distance for some of the participants. The auditors' report indicates that approximately ten percent of the participants who attended these two conferences could have reached Anaheim only after commuting farther than a normal distance. The District could not relocate these conferences within the District, because it did not sponsor them. 14 Department regulations permit reimbursement for travel expenses when they are part of a cost effective effort to consolidate the training programs of more than one district. See 34 C.F.R. Secs. 201.161(b), 201.162(b)(4) (1981). The Department did not challenge the subject matter or the cost effectiveness of the two Anaheim conferences. Therefore, for these two conferences, California's expenditure of Title I funds for food and lodging for those participants who lived beyond a reasonable commuting distance of the conference sites should be allowed. On remand, the Board should receive evidence to determine the number of participants who would have been required to commute more than a reasonable distance to attend these conferences, and California's reimbursement obligation should be adjusted accordingly. See 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1234d(c). For example, the auditors estimated, or perhaps knew precisely, the number of participants who attended the Anaheim conferences from the San Fernando Valley, which the Department did not claim to be within a reasonable commuting distance of Anaheim. California should not be required to reimburse the amount of food and lodging expenditures for these participants.