Opinion ID: 546213
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: The Procedural Adequacy of the 1987-88 IEP.

Text: 47 The scope of a district court's inquiry into a state's compliance with the procedural requirements of the federal Act encompasses not only the substance of special education, but also the adequacy of the process through which a particular IEP has been created. See Rowley, 458 U.S. at 206, 102 S.Ct. at 3050; Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 783, 787. In this case, appellants assert that certain procedural defects in the formation of the second IEP were so severe as to render it infirm. 5 48 We limn the guideposts. Courts must strictly scrutinize IEPs to ensure their procedural integrity. See Defendant I, 898 F.2d at 1190. Strictness, however, must be tempered by considerations of fairness and practicality: procedural flaws do not automatically render an IEP legally defective. See id. at 1191. Before an IEP is set aside, there must be some rational basis to believe that procedural inadequacies compromised the pupil's right to an appropriate education, seriously hampered the parents' opportunity to participate in the formulation process, or caused a deprivation of educational benefits. See id.; Denton, 895 F.2d at 979, 982; Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 786. 49 Appellants urge, without citation to competent authority, that the district court should have shifted the burden to Concord to demonstrate that the alleged procedural defects referable to the 1987-88 IEP were harmless. We disagree. Congress' special emphasis on the provision of procedural protections springs from the hope that an abundance of process and parental involvement will help ensure the creation of satisfactory IEPs acceptable to all concerned. See Rowley, 458 U.S. at 205-06, 102 S.Ct. at 3050; Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 783. Inasmuch as the caselaw makes manifest that the party allegedly aggrieved must carry the burden of proving that the educational agency erred in its substantive judgment, see supra p. 991 and cases cited, logic suggests that the burden be allocated in the same way when a party's attack is garbed in procedural raiment. The court below correctly imposed the devoir of persuasion on the complainants in respect to the harmfulness of the claimed procedural shortcomings. See Kerkam, 862 F.2d at 887; Spielberg, 853 F.2d at 258 n. 2; Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 794. 50 Turning to specifics, appellants' complaints fall into two categories. In terms of output, they cite the use of computerized forms, the lack of a prioritized listing of Matthew's educational objectives, and the bareness of Concord's promise that Matthew would participate in further mainstreaming when ready. In terms of input, they remonstrate that the IEP relied on information gathered from persons (1) not present at the team meeting, and (2) whose identities were not contemporaneously revealed. The district court concluded that the asserted procedural defects in the preparation of the 1987/88 IEP taken together were not sufficient to render the IEP inadequate. The conclusion seems unimpeachable. 51 We believe it is important that, during the team meeting, appellants were given all the information that was ultimately used to fashion the IEP. Such disclosure was plainly sufficient to alleviate any potential problem stemming from the use of preprinted forms or the cursory nature of Concord's comments. Cf., e.g., Defendant I, 898 F.2d at 1191 (Adequate parental involvement and participation in formulating an IEP ... appear to be the Court's primary concern in requiring that procedures be strictly followed.). While personalized detail will always be helpful in evaluating an IEP, we decline the invitation to bar LEAs from using standard forms or to insist that every conclusion and prediction contained in an IEP be exhaustively and explicitly documented. 52 As to input, Massachusetts envisions that the team which writes an IEP will include a teacher who has recently had or currently has the child as a student. Mass.Reg.Code tit. 603, Sec. 311.2. The regulations also provide for input from, inter alia, attending psychologists. Id. Sec. 311.6. Neither Matthew's teacher at Landmark nor the psychologist retained by the parents, Dr. Cushna, attended the team meeting. Yet, while all contributors to the IEP's formation were not at the meeting or identified at that time, the shortfall in attendance seems more attributable to parental reticence than to defendants' errors. The parents, not the school committee, had a relationship with Landmark and with the psychologist. They had removed Matthew from the Concord schools and had specifically asked Concord to refrain from independently testing the child. Thus, the LEA, by virtue of appellants' actions, was in a perilously poor position to remedy the omissions. The law ought not to abet parties who block assembly of the required team and then, dissatisfied with the ensuing IEP, attempt to jettison it because of problems created by their own obstructionism. 53 Further pursuit of this subject would be supererogatory. Particularly in the face of (1) the parents' studied lack of cooperation with ongoing attempts to develop the 1987-88 IEP, and (2) the lack of any indication of procedural bad faith on appellees' part, see Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 783, we are satisfied--as was the district court--that Concord fulfilled the essence of its procedural responsibilities. Compare, e.g., Denton, 895 F.2d at 982.