Opinion ID: 423679
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: MSC's Appeal

Text: 11
12 In Board of Education of the Hendrick Hudson Central School District v. Rowley, --- U.S. ----, 102 S.Ct. 3034, 73 L.Ed.2d 690 (1982), the Supreme Court discussed the proper scope of judicial review in suits brought under 20 U.S.C. § 1415(e)(2): First, has the State complied with the procedures set forth in the Act? And second, is the individualized educational program developed through the Act's procedures reasonably calculated to enable the child[ren] to receive educational benefits? --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 3051 (footnotes omitted). MSC challenges both the failure of the district court to ensure that the state administrative process was procedurally sound and its failure to recognize that the IEPs, as formulated by MSC, were reasonably calculated to enable the child[ren] to receive educational benefits. 13
14 Defendants complain of the fact that the state review officer who reversed the August 11, 1980 decision of the local hearing officer and ordered MSC to fund plaintiffs' placement at Landmark was an employee of the state educational agency. The hearing there did not satisfy the requirement of the EAHCA that it not be conducted by an employee of [the local or state educational] agency ... involved in the education or care of the child. 20 U.S.C. § 1415(b)(2). 3 15 The district court rejected defendants' request that it remand the case for an impartial administrative review. Based on the legislative history of the statute, the court concluded that Congress intended the prohibition against review by employees of an agency involved to benefit only handicapped children and their parents and guardians. See Sen.Conf.Rep. No. 455, 94th Cong., 1st Sess. 49, reprinted in [1975] U.S.Code Cong. & Ad.News 1425, 1502. MSC therefore was not within the protected class that Congress envisioned when it prohibited employees of the state educational agency from acting as review officers and could not challenge the alleged defect in the state review procedure. In this case, the court noted that it would not necessarily remand the under EAHCA for a new administrative review, because of its own mandate to assess the evidence independently, not simply to ensure that the administrative determination was supported by substantial evidence. See 20 U.S.C. § 1415(e)(2). Thus, the court concluded, even if the challenged procedural defect would render an educational agency a party aggrieved and entitle it to review in the district court, the remedy for that defect is de novo review by the court, not a second chance in the administrative process. See Kruelle v. New Castle County School District, 642 F.2d 687, 692 (3d Cir.1981); Grymes v. State Bd. of Educ., 3 EHLR 552:279, :281 (D.Del. Jan. 7, 1981). 16 Since the district court's decision, the Supreme Court has indicated that the court's review is to be something short of a complete de novo review of the state educational program, see Rowley, supra, --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 3051 (The fact that § 1414(e) requires that the reviewing court 'receive the records of the [state] administrative proceedings' carries with it the implied requirement that due weight shall be given to these proceedings), a decision that casts some doubt on the district court's conclusion that even if there were procedural error in the administrative process, no remand would be required. MSC also points out that at least one court has allowed a local educational agency to challenge the state educational agency's use of an employee as a review officer. See East Brunswick Bd. of Educ. v. New Jersey State Bd. of Educ., --- F.Supp. ----, Current EHLR Dec. 554:122 (D.N.J.1982). 17 We need not decide when a remand should be required to cure procedural defects in the administrative review or whether a local educational agency may ever challenge the designation of a state agency employee as review officer. MSC is foreclosed from challenging the procedural violation because through two hearings, numerous briefs, and two decisions by Review Officer O'Neil, MSC did not object to the fact that he was a Department of Education employee. The issue apparently was raised for the first time in a brief presented to the district court. Nor has MSC offered any excuse for its failure to raise the objection during the administrative proceeding, when the error might have been easily corrected. As the Supreme Court has instructed, orderly procedure and good administration require that objections to the proceedings of an administrative agency be made while it has opportunity for correction in order to raise issues reviewable by the courts. United States v. Tucker Truck Lines, 344 U.S. 33, 37, 73 S.Ct. 67, 69, 97 L.Ed. 54 (1952).
18 MSC argues that in rejecting the IEPs developed for plaintiffs, the district court exceeded the scope of the review the Rowley Court indicated is appropriate under the EAHCA. In support of its argument, MSC challenges the findings on which the court based its decision--that under the current IEPs the children might be placed in classes with a pupil/teacher ratio of as high as ten to one, that such a ratio would not permit the individualized instruction the children need, both intellectually and emotionally, that the possibility of mainstreaming the children with non-handicapped children in certain subjects would be detrimental and that the IEPs were grounded on the erroneous premise that the children suffer only moderate learning disabilities. 19 We find nothing in Rowley that persuades us that the review exercised by the district court was anything other than entirely appropriate. In Rowley, the district court, affirmed by the court of appeals, had rejected IEPs that had been challenged and approved through two levels of state administrative review. In addition, despite finding that the plaintiff, a deaf child, performs better than the average child in her class and is advancing easily from grade to grade, the court found that she was not progressing as well as she would without her handicap and therefore that the denial of a sign language interpreter was a denial of the free appropriate education guaranteed by the EAHCA. The Supreme Court reversed, cautioning that besides procedural requirements, the EAHCA requires only that the IEP be reasonably calculated to enable the child to receive educational benefits. The Court also insisted that although reviewing courts are to make independent decisions based on a preponderance of the evidence, they should give due weight to state administrative proceedings. 20 In this case, in contrast to Rowley, the district court affirmed the determination of the state Commissioner. In addition, both the Commissioner and the district court determined that the current IEPs were inadequate to enable the children to learn and to progress. Otherwise phrased, the court determined that the IEPs were not reasonably calculated to enable the child[ren] to receive educational benefits. 21 Regarding MSC's challenge to the factual bases for the court's decision, we note our responsibility to uphold the court's findings unless they are clearly erroneous. Abrahamson v. Hershman, 701 F.2d 223, 230 (1st Cir.1983); Doe v. Anrig, 692 F.2d 800, 808 (1st Cir.1982). As set out in its opinion, the district court had before it a great deal of evidence regarding plaintiffs' disabilities and their educational needs. Having reviewed the evidence, we cannot say that the court's findings, either as to the severity of plaintiffs' disabilities or as to the effect of the proposed placement on their ability to learn and progress were clearly erroneous.
22 1. The District Court's Authority to Order MSC to Continue Funding Plaintiffs' Education at Landmark 23 MSC challenges the fact that the district court not only rejected MSC's challenge to the Commissioner's order, but also granted plaintiffs injunctive relief under the EAHCA, even though plaintiffs were not parties aggrieved by the Commissioner's determination. Given our disposition of MSC's challenge to the impartiality of the Commissioner's designated review officer, it would not appear that MSC would gain anything by being bound only by the order of the Commissioner, as affirmed by the district court, rather than by a more limited order of the court itself. In any case, the short answer to MSC's argument is that under 20 U.S.C. § 1415(e)(2), the district court had jurisdiction over MSC's challenge to the state administrative determination and authority to grant such relief as the court determines is appropriate. Although the scope of that authority is limited by the court's responsibility to accord due weight to the state administrative proceedings, see Rowley, --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 3051, we are aware of no authority indicating that the district court may grant relief only in favor of the party aggrieved by the state administrative process. 4 2. Least Restrictive Placement 24 MSC urges that the court erred in ordering it to continue funding plaintiffs' placement at Landmark because placement there violates the EAHCA's requirement that to the maximum extent appropriate, handicapped children be educated with children who are not handicapped. See 20 U.S.C. § 1412(5); 34 C.F.R. § 330.550-.556. 5 Although it does not appear that MSC made any effort to clarify the misunderstanding, MSC also urges that the source of the court's error was the review officer's misunderstanding that the parties had agreed to limit the possible placement alternatives to that proposed in the IEPs and Landmark. Thus, having rejected the IEPs, the review officer had no choice but to order defendants to fund plaintiffs' placement at Landmark, even though a less restrictive, third alternative would have been preferable. 25 While it may be that the review officer erred in ordering MSC to develop new IEPs which would include placement of plaintiffs at Landmark, rather than simply directing it to develop IEPs that would adequately provide for plaintiffs' educational needs and would accommodate the EAHCA's least restrictive placement requirement, the district court cannot be charged with a similar error. Having determined that the current IEPs would not provide plaintiffs with a free appropriate public education as required by the EAHCA, the court specifically declined to decide whether Landmark or some non-residential placement, but one more responsive to plaintiffs' needs than that currently proposed by MSC, would best accommodate the EAHCA's requirements. Because the court was unable to assess, on the record before it, the effect on the children of an alternative non-residential placement, and because it was satisfied that Landmark, where by the time of the court's decision, the children had been enrolled for two academic years, provided at least an appropriate special education, the court ordered MSC to continue funding plaintiffs' placement at Landmark until such time as defendants propose an alternative placement that is determined to provide a free appropriate public education. 6 26 In Rowley, the Supreme Court emphasized that [t]he primary responsibility for formulating the education to be accorded a handicapped child, and for choosing the educational method most suitable to the child's needs, was left by the Act to state and local educational agencies in cooperation with the parents or guardian of the child. --- U.S. at ----, 102 S.Ct. at 3051. Far from being reversible error, we think the court's decision to allow MSC to determine the placement that would be most appropriate for the children, in light of its findings regarding the severity of their disability and their need for more individualized attention than MSC had offered, but to order continued placement at Landmark in the interim, reflects a sensible accommodation of the state's interest in shaping the children's educational programs and the children's interest in receiving sufficient educational attention while those programs are being developed.