Opinion ID: 200135
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Federal Law and Financial Liability

Text: 25 In its brief, MSD asserts that [a] New Hampshire school district is not required by the [IDEA] to pay for the special education programming of a student whose parents did not and do not reside in either that district or the State of New Hampshire. MSD argues from this assumption that the IDEA dictates that financial liability for special education be determined by a student's legal residency and not by any other criterion. Because Kimberli is not, in MSD's view, a legal resident of New Hampshire, MSD says that it cannot be held liable for her education costs. 26 Contrary to MSD's position, however, the IDEA contains no provision dictating which district or agency within a state must assume financial liability for special education services. The IDEA nowhere purports to allocate financial liability among the multitude of school districts housed within the fifty states. And while the IDEA, as a condition of federal funding for any state, requires a state to provide a free appropriate public education to children with disabilities residing in the State, § 1412(a)(1)(A), it does not purport to limit the provision of such an education to children who fit that standard, however interpreted. Residing in could, of course, include children like Kimberli, who have resided since infancy in a New Hampshire home. But even if the phrase were interpreted to exclude a minor like Kimberli the IDEA does not forbid a state from providing and funding a free appropriate public education to a disabled child who may not be a domiciliary of that state even if, arguably, the state is not required to do so and the child may in fact be a charge under the IDEA upon the custodial parent's state. 15 27 The federal statute, as we say, leaves the assignment and allocation of financial responsibility for special education cost of local school districts to each individual state's legislature. The IDEA provides states with federal funds to help defray the costs of educating children with disabilities. It requires, as a condition of the receipt of federal financial assistance, that a State enact the policies and procedures necessary to ensure that the mandates of the statute are met. See 20 U.S.C. § 1412; 34 C.F.R. § 300.600(b). This duty includes the allocation of financial responsibility for certain special education services. § 1412(a)(12)(A)(ii). But it is the New Hampshire legislature, and not Congress, that assigns and allocates liability for the expenses incurred by a school district administering the mandates of the IDEA. 28 The cases cited by MSD are not to the contrary. See, e.g., Catlin v. Sobol, 93 F.3d 1112, 1115 (2d Cir.1996); Wise v. Ohio Dept. of Ed., 80 F.3d 177, 182 (6th Cir.1996); Newton Pub. Schs., 25 IDELR 107 (1996). While each court assigned financial liability to the school district where the parent resided, the determination was based on an interpretation of the law of the relevant state and the particular facts of the case. Catlin, 93 F.3d at 1114 (interpreting New York law); Wise, 80 F.3d at 182 (interpreting Ohio law); Newton Pub. Schs., 25 IDELR at 107 (interpreting Massachusetts law). While courts have sometimes suggested that there is a presumption that the residency of the student's parents dictates which school district bears the responsibility for meeting the requirements of the IDEA, see Catlin, 93 F.3d at 1122, no court has stated that the IDEA itself mandates that a state make determinations of school district liability based invariably on the parent's residency. 29 We therefore agree with the district court that the IDEA neither dictates the financial liability of particular school districts nor prevents a state from enacting laws providing for the payment of the special education costs of a child living at a school within the state whose parents reside outside the state. Put another way, it is to New Hampshire law, not federal law, to which we must look to determine whether MSD must pay for Kimberli's special education costs.