Opinion ID: 2581004
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Custody and IEP

Text: On March 10, 2000, the DHS filed a petition for foster custody of John and Jane Doe in the family court of the first circuit. [15] On March 16, 2000, the family court appointed the GAL to represent John and Jane, and, on April 2, 2001, the family court awarded permanent custody of the children to the DHS. [16] As the permanent custodian, DHS agreed to be responsible for [p]rovid [ing] all consents that [would be] required for [John, Jane, and their half sibling's] physical, medical, dental, educational, recreational [,] and social needs. (Emphasis added.) John was a special education student and a member of the Felix class of students receiving educational services pursuant to the IDEA. See supra notes 2 and 3. During the 2000-01 school year, John attended eighth grade at Wai'anae Intermediate School. At the end of the school year, John had earned 6.0 credits, enough to continue on to ninth grade. In July 2001, however, John was placed with new foster parents, who sought to enroll him to repeat the eighth grade at Kahuku Intermediate School. On August 16 and 24, 2001, John's IEP team [17] met to determine what grade placement ( i.e., eighth or ninth gradei would be appropriate for him, but the team could not reach a consensus. Although the Department of Health (DOH) home and school-based therapist, John's foster parents, John's DHS social worker, the GAL, John's Wai'anae Adolescent Day Treatment Program (ADTP) teacher, the ADTP Program Director, John's Wai'anae Intermediate counselor, and John himself all advocated an eighth grade placement, Kahuku administrative and teaching personnel, as well as John's surrogate parent and DOH administrative personnel, asserted that John should be placed in the ninth grade. The GAL and John's foster father wrote letters of dissent in hopes of convening an administrative hearing on the issue of John's grade placement. In the meantime, Kahuku administrative personnel placed John in their ADTP, where John began classes on August 27, 2001, without knowing his final grade placement. On August 29, 2001, Kahuku's principal, Lisa DeLong, informed the GAL that she had the ultimate authority regarding John's grade placement. Moreover, Principal DeLong stated that, to the best of her knowledge, the GAL and the new foster parents (having been foster parents for less than six months) had no clout in IEP determinations; instead, John's surrogate parent was the only individual who could have requested an administrative hearing. On August 31, 2001, because John's surrogate parent favored promoting John to the ninth grade, the GAL filed a motion in the family court to afford the DOE independent legal representation. In conjunction with her motion, the GAL declared that [t]here is no avenue for administrative or other review available to [John] or those who know him. It is in [John's] best interests that [the family court] determine his educational placement[.]