Opinion ID: 472144
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Duty To Provide Services Directly

Text: 116 The state contends that the district court erred in enjoining it to provide services directly whenever, in any individual case, it determines that a local educational agency is unable or unwilling to maintain programs of free appropriate public education for handicapped students. According to the state, section 1414(d) of the EAHCA requires it to provide services directly, not in individual instances of local inaction, but only when localities maintain no programs of special education whatsoever. 117 We think the state conceives its role under section 1414(d) too narrowly. When read in its entirety, the provision imposes on the state a broader duty. Although the state stresses the language in 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1414(d)(1) (1982) that speaks of the state's responsibility for direct action when the locality fails to maintain programs of free appropriate education, section 1414(d)(3) specifically requires direct action when a local education agency has one or more handicapped children who can best be served by a regional or State center designed to meet the needs of such children. Id. Sec. 1414(d)(3) (emphasis added). It would seem incontrovertable that, whenever the local agency refuses or wrongfully neglects to provide a handicapped child with a free appropriate education, that child can best be served on the regional or state level. See Kruelle v. New Castle County School District, 642 F.2d 687, 696-99 (3d Cir.1981) (holding that the district court did not err in assigning to the state board of education the responsibility of providing a child with an appropriate public education); Georgia Association of Retarded Citizens v. McDaniel, 511 F.Supp. 1263 (N.D.Ga.1981) (holding that 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1414(d) places the responsibility on the state educational agency either to make sure that local agencies provide adequate educational services to handicapped children, or to provide directly such services themselves), aff'd, 716 F.2d 1565 (11th Cir.1983), vacated on other grounds, --- U.S. ----, 104 S.Ct. 3581, 82 L.Ed.2d 880 (1984); cf. S-1 v. Turlington, 635 F.2d 342, 350 (5th Cir.) (Unit B) (holding that a state agency can be enjoined to intervene directly in a local expulsion proceeding), cert. denied, 454 U.S. 1030, 102 S.Ct. 566, 70 L.Ed.2d 473 (1981). 118 Although the state has broad responsibilities under the EAHCA, those responsibilities are not absolute. The state is not obliged to intervene directly in an individual case whenever the local agency falls short of its responsibilities in some small regard. The breach must be significant (as in this case), the child's parents or guardian must give the responsible state officials adequate notice of the local agency's noncompliance, and the state must be afforded a reasonable opportunity to compel local compliance. 119