Opinion ID: 509546
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: EHA Requires More than a De Minimis Benefit

Text: 47 We hold that the EHA calls for more than a trivial educational benefit. That holding rests on the Act and its legislative history as well as interpretation of Rowley.
48 The opinion of the district court, anchored to the some benefit language of Rowley, 458 U.S. at 200, 102 S.Ct. at 3047, explained its holding as follows: 49 The fact that Christopher would advance more quickly with intensive therapy rather than the therapy he now receives does not make the School District's program for Christopher defective. Programs need only render some benefit; they need not maximize potential.... The Supreme Court has determined that the Act is primarily a procedural statute and does not impose a substantive duty on the state to provide a student with other than some educational benefits. Increased muscle tone may well fall outside of the scope of the requirement that Christopher receive some educational benefits from the program in which he is enrolled. 50 J.A. at 537-38 (citations omitted) (emphasis in original). 51 Plaintiffs argue on appeal that the district court applied the wrong standard in measuring the educational benefit of Christopher's program and that the case should be remanded for further proceedings consistent with the correct standard, one that requires more than a de minimis benefit. Defendants rejoin that Rowley 's announcement of a some benefit test precludes judicial inquiry into the substantive education conferred by the Act, so long as the handicapped child receives any benefit at all. Noting that Christopher's parents acknowledge that he derives some benefit from his education, defendants submit that the inquiry is over and that the district court's summary judgment must be affirmed. 52 Our review of the legal standard applied by the district court is plenary. See Muth, 839 F.2d at 120 (citing Universal Mineral, Inc. v. C.A. Hughes & Co., 669 F.2d 98, 101-02 (3d Cir.1981); Wexler v. Westfield Bd. of Educ., 784 F.2d 176, 181 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 479 U.S. 825, 107 S.Ct. 99, 93 L.Ed.2d 49 (1986).
53 Because Rowley is a narrow decision, our decision must perforce also be informed by the text of the EHA and the legislative history of the 1975 amendments. Accordingly, we turn to a discussion thereof. Our interpretation of educational benefit is informed by the text of the EHA and by the legislative history concerning the passage of the 1975 amendments. The self-defined purpose of the EHA is to provide full educational opportunity to all handicapped children. 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1412(2)(A) (emphasis added). Similarly, the Senate Report on the 1975 amendments defined related services as transportation, developmental, corrective, and supportive services (specifically including at least speech pathology and audiology, psychological services, counseling services, physical and occupational therapy, and recreation) necessary for a handicapped child to fully benefit from special education. Sen.R.No. 168, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. at 42 (emphasis added). The House Report echoes this language, citing the EHA's goal of providing each handicapped child with a free, full, public education. H.Rep.No. 332, 94th Cong. at 11 (1975) (emphasis added). See also 121 Cong.Rec. 19482 (remarks of Senator Randolph, W. Virginia, Chair, Senate Subcommittee on the Handicapped) (discussing the goals of the EHA as [a]chieving a goal of full educational opportunities). Although the Supreme Court has instructed that Congress did not intend to provide optimal benefit, the Act's use of the phrase full educational opportunity and the EHA's legislative history indicate an intent to afford more than a trivial amount of educational benefit. 54 We note that the dissent in Rowley compiled a long list of statements made by Senators and Representatives sponsoring the 1975 amendments indicating that the purpose of the Act was to provide equal educational opportunity. See 458 U.S. at 213-14, 102 S.Ct. at 3054 (White, J., dissenting). 14 We do not reference this compendium for the broad proposition that the Act requires the states to maximize a handicapped child's education, as did the three dissenting Justices (Justices Brennan and Marshall joined in Justice White's dissent; Justice Blackmun wrote a separate opinion concurring in the majority opinion). Nevertheless, we may rely on these statements for the narrower proposition that the legislators who passed the EHA did not envision merely a trivial benefit to handicapped children. 55 Furthermore, we observe, as did the majority in Rowley, that a key concern of and primary justification for the EHA lay in the important goal of fostering self-sufficiency in handicapped children. See H.Rep.No. 332, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. at 11 (1975) (taxpayers will spend many billions of dollars over the lifetime of these handicapped individuals simply to maintain such persons as dependents on welfare and often in institutions); Rowley, 458 U.S. at 201 n. 23, 102 S.Ct. at 3048 n. 23 (quoting extensively from the legislative history of the EHA concerning self-sufficiency). The EHA's sponsors stressed the importance of teaching skills that would foster personal independence for two reasons. First, they advocated dignity for handicapped children. Second, they stressed the long-term financial savings of early education and assistance for handicapped children. A chief selling point of the Act was that although it is penny dear, it is pound wise--the expensive individualized assistance early in life, geared toward teaching basic life skills and self-sufficiency, eventually redounds to the benefit of the public fisc as these children grow to become productive citizens. See H.Rep.No. 332, supra, at 11 (with proper educational services many of these handicapped children would be able to become productive citizens contributing to society instead of being left to remain burdens on society); 121 Cong.Rec. 19492 (1975) (remarks of Senator Williams); id. at 19505 (remarks of Senator Beall). 56 Implicit in the legislative history's emphasis on self-sufficiency is the notion that states must provide some sort of meaningful education--more than mere access to the schoolhouse door. We acknowledge that self-sufficiency cannot serve as a substantive standard by which to measure the appropriateness of a child's education under the Act. See Rowley, 458 U.S. at 201 n. 23, 102 S.Ct. at 3048 n. 23. Indeed, Christopher Polk is not likely ever to attain this coveted status, no matter how excellent his educational program. Instead, we infer that the emphasis on self-sufficiency indicates in some respect the quantum of benefits the legislators anticipated: they must have envisioned that significant learning would transpire in the special education classroom--enough so that citizens who would otherwise become burdens on the state would be transformed into productive members of society. Therefore, the heavy emphasis in the legislative history on self-sufficiency as one goal of education, where possible, suggests that the benefit conferred by the EHA and interpreted by Rowley must be more than de minimis. 57 We believe that the teaching of Rowley is not to the contrary. As discussed above, the Rowley Court described the education that must be provided under the EHA as meaningful. The use of the term meaningful indicates that the Court expected more than de minimis benefit. We note in this regard that the facts of Rowley clearly indicate that the benefit Amy was receiving from her educational program was substantial, and that some benefit, in the case of Amy, meant a great deal more than a negligible amount. 58 However, to the extent that dicta in Rowley might be read to imply that courts should not become involved in the substantive aspects of the EHA, we find Rowley distinguishable from the case sub judice. As discussed in Section V(A), supra, Rowley specifically limited itself to the facts before it, involving a hearing-impaired child advancing from grade to grade in a mainstreamed classroom. Because the Court so self-consciously restricted the scope of its holding, we may (as we did above) reexamine the policies and the legislative history of the EHA to inform our decision. 59 Additionally, Rowley is distinguishable from the case sub judice because of the type of services requested. Unlike the services of a full-time interpreter (which arguably may be deemed extraordinary assistance), physical therapy, as discussed above in Sections I and III, is an integral part of what Congress intended by appropriate education as defined in EHA, and it is an essential part of Christopher's education. For example, physical therapy is cited as an example of the type of related services available under the Act. See 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1401(17). Moreover, federal regulations implementing EHA specifically define physical therapy as services provided by a qualified physical therapist. 34 C.F.R. Sec. 300.13 (1987). Cf. T.G. v. Bd. of Educ. of Piscataway, 576 F.Supp. 420, 423-24 (D.N.J.1983) (distinguishing extraordinary sign language services of Rowley from psychological services that are specifically set out in EHA and regulations), aff'd, 738 F.2d 425 (3d Cir.), cert. denied, 469 U.S. 1086, 105 S.Ct. 592, 83 L.Ed.2d 701 (1984). 60 Finally, because of the severity of Christopher's disabilities and their qualitative difference from those of Amy Rowley, it is difficult to apply Rowley here. Christopher's progress cannot be measured by advancement in grade or acquisition of academic skill. His needs are drastically different, but no less important. See DeLeon v. Susquehanna Community School Dist., 747 F.2d 149, 153 (3d Cir.1984); see also Rowley, 458 U.S. at 202, 102 S.Ct. at 3049 (It is clear that the benefits obtainable by children at one end of the spectrum will differ dramatically from those obtainable by children at the other end, with infinite variations in between.). Indeed, the needs of children like Christopher were paramount in the eyes of the EHA sponsors. The EHA provides that the most severely handicapped children be served first. See 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1412(3). That Christopher may never achieve the goals set in a traditional classroom does not undermine the fact that his brand of education (training in basic life skills) is an essential part of EHA's mandate. Therefore, although we believe the holding in Rowley is compatible with our holding in this case, to the extent that dicta in the opinion tend to undermine our substantive standard, we find the Rowley case distinguishable.
61 This court recently has had occasion to interpret and apply the Rowley standard in the context of a severely impaired child. In Board of Education v. Diamond, 808 F.2d 987, 991 (3d Cir.1986), we expressly rejected the argument that when the Supreme Court in Rowley referred to some benefit, it meant any benefit at all, even if the child nevertheless regressed. The case involved a child, Andrew Diamond, with severe physical, neurological, and emotional handicaps. Despite evidence that Andrew's learning skills were deteriorating and his behavior was becoming counterproductive, the state resisted transferring Andrew from his placement in a day program to a placement in a residential program. As a result, Andrew's parents put him in a residential program and paid for it themselves. 62 After a due process hearing, the school board was ordered to place Andrew in an appropriate residential setting. The school board filed an action in federal court seeking a day placement for Andrew. The district court, however, endorsed the residential placement and ordered the school district to reimburse Andrew's parents for the expenses incurred when paying for his residential placement themselves. 63 In Diamond, we thus confronted and rejected the very argument that the defendants make here: 64 The School District's legal argument is that it is obliged by governing law to provide no more for Andrew Diamond than will be of benefit to him. The governing law, however, clearly imposes a higher standard. 65 Id. at 991. After observing that the Rowley standard of enabling one to achieve passing marks and advance from grade to grade probably is not achievable for Andrew, id., the court observed: 66 But Rowley makes it perfectly clear that the Act requires a plan of instruction under which educational progress is likely. The School District's of benefit test is offered in defense of an educational plan under which educational regression actually occurred. Literally the School Board's plan might be conceived as conferring some benefit to Andrew in that less regression might occur under it than if Andrew Diamond had simply been left to vegetate. The Act, however, requires a plan likely to produce progress, not regression or trivial educational advancement. 67 Id. (emphasis in original). The teaching of Diamond is that, when the Supreme Court said some benefit in Rowley, it did not mean some as opposed to none. Rather, some connotes an amount of benefit greater than mere trivial advancement. 15 68 Defendants seek to distinguish Diamond, arguing that Diamond was a more egregious case, whereby regression had occurred under the state's educational plan (there has been no regression here). Although we acknowledge that this distinction has some force, and that Diamond does indeed stand for the proposition that a child who is regressing (and whose regression can be reversed by reasonable means) is not receiving sufficient benefit under the Act, we believe that Diamond can and should be read more expansively. 69 Indeed, defendants' distinction of Diamond, if carried to its logical conclusion, would arguably render that case more expansive because progress for some severely handicapped children may require optimal benefit. As we noted in Battle, 629 F.2d at 269, severely handicapped children (unlike normal children) have a strong tendency to regress. A program calculated to lead to non-regression might actually, in the case of severely handicapped children, impose a greater burden on the state than one that requires a program designed to lead to more than trivial progress. The educational progress of a handicapped child (whether in life skills or in a more sophisticated program) can be understood as a continuum where the point of regression versus progress is less relevant than the conferral of benefit. We note that it is therefore possible to construe Diamond 's holding not solely as an issue of progress or regression but also as requiring that any educational benefit be more than de minimis. 70 Furthermore, serious problem with defendants' attempted distinction of Diamond lies in defendants' implicit suggestion that a child must first show regression before his parents may challenge the appropriateness of his education. But we do not believe that Congress intended that courts present parents with the Hobson's choice of allowing regression (hence proving their claim) or providing on their own what their child needs to make meaningful progress. Finally, to the extent that defendants may correctly argue that the central focus of Diamond is regression, and that any language concerning trivial benefit is dicta, for the reasons set forth above, we find that dicta to be absolutely correct and in line with our analysis of Rowley and the legislative history of the EHA.
71 To summarize, in our view, the danger of the district court's formulation is that under its reading of Rowley the conferral of any benefit, no matter how small, could qualify as appropriate education under the EHA. Under the district court's approach, carried to its logical extreme, Christopher Polk would be entitled to no physical therapy because his occupational therapy offers him some benefit. 16 We do not believe that such a formulation reflects congressional intent in light of the importance of related services (particularly physical therapy) in the statutory and regulatory scheme. Just as Congress did not write a blank check, neither did it anticipate that states would engage in the idle gesture of providing special education designed to confer only trivial benefit. Put differently, and using Rowley 's own terminology, we hold that Congress intended to afford children with special needs an education that would confer meaningful benefit. 72 We further conclude that Rowley, although it prescribes restraint and warns that Congress did not intend the Act to maximize a child's potential, does not militate against the standard we have announced. Because the test employed by the district court ostensibly could have allowed only a de minimis benefit, we must remand in light of our interpretation. Finally, we do not read the Supreme Court's salutary warnings against interference with educational methodology as an invitation to abdicate our obligation to enforce the statutory provisions that ensure a free and appropriate education to Christopher. See Georgia Ass'n of Retarded Persons, 716 F.2d at 1569 (noting the central role states play in educating their citizens but observing that a state's responsibility for providing education is bounded by certain congressionally developed concerns once the state accepts federal financial assistance under the Act). 73 Obviously, this court is in no position to determine the factual question whether the treatment the defendants currently provide for Christopher is appropriate. We are, however, obligated to correct errors of law on appeal, and we hold that the district court applied the wrong standard in granting summary judgment for defendants when it allowed for the possibility of only de minimis benefit. 74