Opinion ID: 780674
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Teacher Participation

Text: 15 The IDEA requires that the teacher participate in the formation of a child's IEP. 20 U.S.C. § 1401(a)(20). Dorie's parents and the PVUSD disagree about which teacher should have attended the June 8 IEP meeting. Dorie's parents argue that the school district violated the IDEA by not including a representative from CID at the meeting. In contrast, the PVUSD contends that it was not necessary to include a representative from CID at the meeting, and that it complied with IDEA by including the speech pathologist and the hearing impaired instructor from its newly-created program at Sonoran Sky Elementary. We agree that the PVUSD violated the IDEA by not including a representative from CID at the June 8 IEP meeting. 16 We have held that a school district's failure to include a representative from a private school that a child is currently attending violates the procedural mandates of the IDEA. See W.G. v. Bd. of Trustees, 960 F.2d 1479, 1484 (9th Cir. 1992) (holding that the formation of the child's IEP was procedurally flawed because the district was required to ensure participation by the private school [in which the child was enrolled] in the formulation of the IEP (citation omitted)). IDEA requires the persons most knowledgeable about the child to attend the IEP meeting. Id.; see also 34 C.F.R. § 300.533. The PVUSD made no attempt to include a representative from CID at the June 8 IEP meeting. As a result, the teachers most knowledgeable about Dorie's special education levels and needs did not attend the meeting, in violation of the IDEA. 17 The PVUSD argues that the IDEA, 20 U.S.C. § 1401(a)(20), requires a teacher to participate in the development of an IEP and that by including two qualified and credentialed teachers of the hearing impaired at the June 8 IEP meeting, it was in compliance with the Act. According to § 1401(a)(20),  the teacher, not a teacher, must be included in the development of the IEP. The PVUSD's interpretation of this statutory provision conveys too broad a meaning to the word teacher, a meaning inconsistent with the statute. 18 The implementing regulation for § 1401(a)(20) helps clarify what is meant by the teacher: 19 In deciding which teacher will participate in meetings on a child's IEP, the agency may wish to consider the following possibilities: (a) For a child with a disability who is receiving special education, the teacher could be the child's special education teacher. If the child's disability is a speech impairment, the teacher could be the speech-language pathologist; (b) For a child with a disability who is being considered for placement in special education, the teacher could be the child's regular teacher, or a teacher qualified to provide education in the type of program in which the child may be placed, or both. ... 20 34 C.F.R. § 300.344, Note 1. Because Dorie had been receiving special education services at CID at the time of the June 8 IEP, subdivision (a) applies here. 5 Under subdivision (a), either Dorie's special education teacher or her speech-language pathologist should have been present at the IEP meeting. Dorie received special education at CID, not in the PVUSD, so, contrary to the PVUSD's assertion, the only teachers who met the subdivision (a) criteria were her CID instructors. 21 The PVUSD also argues that our decision in Clyde K. v. Puyallup School District, No. 3, 35 F.3d 1396 (9th Cir.1994), requires reversal of the district court's judgment. We disagree. In Clyde K., we recognized that subdivision (b) allows school districts to satisfy the terms of the IDEA by including a future teacher at an IEP meeting. Id. at 1400. We did not so hold regarding subdivision (a), and because we conclude that subdivision (a) applies in this case given that Dorie had been receiving special education services at CID, Clyde K. 's discussion of future teachers with regard to subdivision (b) is not on point.