Opinion ID: 546213
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 4

Heading: adequacy and appropriateness

Text: 28 We come now to the heart of the matter: the sufficiency of the IEPs proposed by Concord, endorsed by the BSEA, and found satisfactory by the court below. On the premise that one should look before leaping, we deem it advisable to delineate the yardstick by which adequacy and appropriateness must be measured prior to confronting appellants' particularized challenges. We keep in mind that, in cases arising under the Act, the burden rests with the complaining party to prove that the agency's decision was wrong. See Kerkam v. McKenzie, 862 F.2d 884, 887 (D.C.Cir.1988); Spielberg v. Henrico County Public Schools, 853 F.2d 256, 258 n. 2 (4th Cir.1988), cert. denied, --- U.S. ----, 109 S.Ct. 1131, 103 L.Ed.2d 192 (1989). 29
30 In storming these ramparts, appellants rely heavily on the particulars of Massachusetts' requirement that its special education programs assure the maximum possible development of handicapped students. See Mass.Gen.L. ch. 71B, Sec. 2; see also Stock, 467 N.E.2d at 453. This substantive standard is admittedly higher than the federal educational benefit floor, Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 789, and makes the formulation and evaluation of IEPs a more complicated task in the Commonwealth than elsewhere. Be that as it may, the parents' claim that their son's academic progress at Landmark necessarily demonstrated the inadequacy of Concord's IEPs will not wash: even under the Massachusetts standard, a program which maximizes a student's academic potential does not by that fact alone comprise the requisite adequate and appropriate education. In a nutshell, appellants' per se approach is far too simplistic. 3 31 Let us be perfectly clear. Congress indubitably desired effective results and demonstrable improvement for the Act's beneficiaries. Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 788. Hence, actual educational results are relevant to determining the efficacy of educators' policy choices. 4 See Defendant I, 898 F.2d at 1190. But, appellants confuse what is relevant with what is dispositive. The key to the conundrum is that, while academic potential is one factor to be considered, those who formulate IEPs must also consider what, if any, related services, 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1401(17), are required to address a student's needs. Irving Independent School Dist. v. Tatro, 468 U.S. 883, 889-90, 104 S.Ct. 3371, 3375, 82 L.Ed.2d 664 (1984); Roncker v. Walter, 700 F.2d 1058, 1063 (6th Cir.), cert. denied, 464 U.S. 864, 104 S.Ct. 196, 78 L.Ed.2d 171 (1983). 32 Among the related services which must be included as integral parts of an appropriate education are such development, corrective, and other supportive services (including ... psychological services ... and counseling services) as may be required to assist a handicapped child to benefit from special education. 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1401(17); see also 34 C.F.R. Sec. 300.13; Mass.Gen.L. ch. 71B, Sec. 1 (defining special needs to be addressed by special education). So long as the means for doing so fit within the statutory compendium, the Act require[s] that all of a child's special needs must be addressed in the educational plan. Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 788; see also 34 C.F.R. Pt. 300, App. C, Question 44 (the IEP for a handicapped child must include all of the specific special education and related services needed by the child--as defined by the child's current evaluation). Thus, purely academic progress--maximizing academic potential--is not the only indicia of educational benefit implicated either by the Act or by state law. 33 Moreover, appellants' argument misperceives the focus of an inquiry under 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1415(e)(2): the issue is not whether the IEP was prescient enough to achieve perfect academic results, but whether it was reasonably calculated to provide an appropriate education as defined in federal and state law. See Rowley, 458 U.S. at 207, 102 S.Ct. at 3051; Defendant I, 898 F.2d at 1191; Denton, 895 F.2d at 980; Colin K., 715 F.2d at 4. This concept has decretory significance in two respects. For one thing, actions of school systems cannot, as appellants would have it, be judged exclusively in hindsight. An IEP is a snapshot, not a retrospective. In striving for appropriateness, an IEP must take into account what was, and was not, objectively reasonable when the snapshot was taken, that is, at the time the IEP was promulgated. See 34 C.F.R. Pt. 300, App. C, Question 38 (IEP's annual goals describe what a handicapped child can reasonably be expected to accomplish); see also 34 C.F.R. Sec. 300.349. For another thing, the alchemy of reasonable calculation necessarily involves choices among educational policies and theories--choices which courts, relatively speaking, are poorly equipped to make. Academic standards are matters peculiarly within the expertise of the [state] department [of education] and of local educational authorities.... Stock, 467 N.E.2d at 455. We think it well that courts have exhibited an understandable reluctance to overturn a state education agency's judgment calls in such delicate areas--at least where it can be shown that the IEP proposed by the school district is based upon an accepted, proven methodology. Lachman, 852 F.2d at 297. As Chief Justice (then Justice) Rehnquist has written: 34 The 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 guardians of the child.... In the face of such a clear statutory directive, it seems highly unlikely that Congress intended courts to overturn a State's choice of appropriate educational theories in a proceeding conducted pursuant to Sec. 1415(e)(2). 35 Rowley, 458 U.S. at 207-08, 102 S.Ct. at 3051. Beyond the broad questions of a student's general capabilities and whether an educational plan identifies and addresses his or her basic needs, courts should be loathe to intrude very far into interstitial details or to become embroiled in captious disputes as to the precise efficacy of different instructional programs. See Rowley, 458 U.S. at 202, 102 S.Ct. at 3048; Defendant I, 898 F.2d at 1191; Stock, 467 N.E.2d at 455. 36 There is one final basis on which we reject appellants' per se argument. An IEP must prescribe a pedagogical format in which, to the maximum extent appropriate, a handicapped student is educated with children who are not handicapped.... 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1412(5)(B); 34 C.F.R. Sec. 300.550(b)(1). Congress' stated preference requires, in the eyes of both federal and state authorities, that education of the handicapped occur in the least restrictive environment. See 34 C.F.R. Sec. 300.552(d); Mass.Gen.L. ch. 71B, Secs. 2, 3. Mainstreaming may not be ignored, even to fulfill substantive educational criteria. Just as the least restrictive environment guarantee cannot be applied to cure an otherwise inappropriate placement, similarly, a state standard cannot be invoked to release an educational agency from compliance with the mainstreaming provisions. Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 789 n. 19; see also Roncker, 700 F.2d at 1063 (a placement which may be considered better for academic reasons may not be appropriate because of the failure to provide for mainstreaming). 37 Correctly understood, the correlative requirements of educational benefit and least restrictive environment operate in tandem to create a continuum of educational possibilities. See Rowley, 458 U.S. at 181 n. 4, 102 S.Ct. at 3038 n. 4; Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 785 n. 12; Abrahamson, 701 F.2d at 229 n. 10. To determine a particular child's place on this continuum, the desirability of mainstreaming must be weighed in concert with the Act's mandate for educational improvement. See Lachman, 852 F.2d at 296. Assaying an appropriate educational plan, therefore, requires a balancing of the marginal benefits to be gained or lost on both sides of the maximum benefit/least restrictive fulcrum. Neither side is automatically entitled to extra ballast. 38 For these reasons, then, comparative academic progress, in and of itself, is not necessarily a valid proxy for, or determinative of, the degree to which an IEP was reasonably calculated to achieve the mandated level of educational benefit. 39
40 The precepts we have just surveyed frame the inquiry facing the court below: the issue was not whether Concord's program was better or worse than Landmark's in terms of academic results or some other purely scholastic criterion, but whether Concord's program, taking into account the totality of Matthew's special needs, struck an adequate and appropriate balance on the maximum benefit/least restrictive fulcrum. On this issue, the record sustains the district court's affirmative conclusion. 41 In the first place, the district court was bound to give due weight to the agency's judgment. See Rowley, 458 U.S. at 207. Second, the court obviously agreed with the BSEA hearing officers that Matthew required not only academic help but also socialization training and motor skills assistance. Having canvassed the evidence presented by Matthew's teacher, his parents, and the treating professionals, we cannot say that such a conclusion constituted clear error. As a matter of maximizing Matthew's educational benefit, those special needs were properly considered by the IEP team, notwithstanding the parents' rather singleminded focus on academic results. See Hudson v. Wilson, 828 F.2d 1059, 1063 (4th Cir.1987); see also Mass.Gen.L. ch. 71B, Sec. 2. The IEP ensured socialization therapy with a psychologist and occupational therapy to improve Matthew's motor skills. Landmark's regimen provided no motor skills training and no specific program of socialization therapy. It follows that Concord could lawfully implement an educational plan which it reasonably considered more appropriate and well-rounded than the Landmark program, especially when its IEP explicitly provided for more, and better diversified, related services keyed to Matthew's specific handicaps. See, e.g., Wilson v. Marana Unified School Dist., 735 F.2d 1178, 1182-83 (9th Cir.1984). 42 Additionally, appellants' imprecations all but ignore the mainstreaming requirement. Defendants' 1986-87 IEP proposed a non-residential day program in public school. The plan called for Matthew to be taught in both self-contained classrooms (i.e., with other handicapped students) and in regular classrooms, thus allowing increased mainstreaming in classes like social studies and science where he had attained an acceptable level of performance. In contrast, as a residential school catering to a learning-disabled clientele, Landmark posed a much more restrictive environment and afforded decreased prospects for mainstreaming. 43 Last but not least, there was considerable room for the BSEA, and the district court, to find that the advantages inherent in the IEP did not severely compromise educational benefits. Concord's teacher-student ratio was within the range recommended by two professionals who were treating Matthew (Drs. Cushna and Kinsbourne). Its faculty, by many measures, was more experienced and better credentialed than Landmark's. Matthew's progress from 1984 to 1986--a period which had been spent, for the most part, in the Concord public schools--was described by Dr. Cushna as most astonishing. Although the evidence showed that peer interaction remained a persistent problem, Matthew had been making good academic progress and was gaining self-confidence during the interval immediately before his parents unilaterally changed his placement. 44 In light of the evidence of Matthew's specific needs and the differences, plus and minus, between the IEP, on the one hand, and the Landmark program, on the second hand, there was substantial proof from which the state agency could rationally conclude that the IEP was adequate and appropriate. Mindful of this evidence, and the weight to be accorded agency determinations in cases under the Act, we cannot say that the district court erred in striking the balance of factors in favor of the BSEA's resolution of the question presented. Where the evidence permits two plausible views of adequacy/appropriateness, the agency's choice between them cannot lightly be disturbed. 45 To this point, we have discussed the 1986-87 IEP to the virtual exclusion of the 1987-88 IEP. Yet, what we have written about the former applies full bore to the latter. Because the parents insisted that Concord not reevaluate Matthew, the 1987-88 IEP was drafted along the same lines as the 1986-87 plan. It reflected a mixture of self-contained and heterogeneous classes, speech/language training, and occupational therapy. The 1987-88 IEP also included a substantial after-school socialization component designed to bring Matthew into contact with both handicapped and non-handicapped children. One new feature was a specific allotment of time to an academic tutorial program. The alternative--Landmark's program--remained substantially unchanged. For the same reasons as pertained in the previous year, the BSEA permissibly determined Concord's 1987-88 IEP to be appropriate and substantively adequate. The lower court's ratification of that finding was not clearly wrong. 46
47 The scope of a district court's inquiry into a state's compliance with the procedural requirements of the federal Act encompasses not only the substance of special education, but also the adequacy of the process through which a particular IEP has been created. See Rowley, 458 U.S. at 206, 102 S.Ct. at 3050; Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 783, 787. In this case, appellants assert that certain procedural defects in the formation of the second IEP were so severe as to render it infirm. 5 48 We limn the guideposts. Courts must strictly scrutinize IEPs to ensure their procedural integrity. See Defendant I, 898 F.2d at 1190. Strictness, however, must be tempered by considerations of fairness and practicality: procedural flaws do not automatically render an IEP legally defective. See id. at 1191. Before an IEP is set aside, there must be some rational basis to believe that procedural inadequacies compromised the pupil's right to an appropriate education, seriously hampered the parents' opportunity to participate in the formulation process, or caused a deprivation of educational benefits. See id.; Denton, 895 F.2d at 979, 982; Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 786. 49 Appellants urge, without citation to competent authority, that the district court should have shifted the burden to Concord to demonstrate that the alleged procedural defects referable to the 1987-88 IEP were harmless. We disagree. Congress' special emphasis on the provision of procedural protections springs from the hope that an abundance of process and parental involvement will help ensure the creation of satisfactory IEPs acceptable to all concerned. See Rowley, 458 U.S. at 205-06, 102 S.Ct. at 3050; Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 783. Inasmuch as the caselaw makes manifest that the party allegedly aggrieved must carry the burden of proving that the educational agency erred in its substantive judgment, see supra p. 991 and cases cited, logic suggests that the burden be allocated in the same way when a party's attack is garbed in procedural raiment. The court below correctly imposed the devoir of persuasion on the complainants in respect to the harmfulness of the claimed procedural shortcomings. See Kerkam, 862 F.2d at 887; Spielberg, 853 F.2d at 258 n. 2; Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 794. 50 Turning to specifics, appellants' complaints fall into two categories. In terms of output, they cite the use of computerized forms, the lack of a prioritized listing of Matthew's educational objectives, and the bareness of Concord's promise that Matthew would participate in further mainstreaming when ready. In terms of input, they remonstrate that the IEP relied on information gathered from persons (1) not present at the team meeting, and (2) whose identities were not contemporaneously revealed. The district court concluded that the asserted procedural defects in the preparation of the 1987/88 IEP taken together were not sufficient to render the IEP inadequate. The conclusion seems unimpeachable. 51 We believe it is important that, during the team meeting, appellants were given all the information that was ultimately used to fashion the IEP. Such disclosure was plainly sufficient to alleviate any potential problem stemming from the use of preprinted forms or the cursory nature of Concord's comments. Cf., e.g., Defendant I, 898 F.2d at 1191 (Adequate parental involvement and participation in formulating an IEP ... appear to be the Court's primary concern in requiring that procedures be strictly followed.). While personalized detail will always be helpful in evaluating an IEP, we decline the invitation to bar LEAs from using standard forms or to insist that every conclusion and prediction contained in an IEP be exhaustively and explicitly documented. 52 As to input, Massachusetts envisions that the team which writes an IEP will include a teacher who has recently had or currently has the child as a student. Mass.Reg.Code tit. 603, Sec. 311.2. The regulations also provide for input from, inter alia, attending psychologists. Id. Sec. 311.6. Neither Matthew's teacher at Landmark nor the psychologist retained by the parents, Dr. Cushna, attended the team meeting. Yet, while all contributors to the IEP's formation were not at the meeting or identified at that time, the shortfall in attendance seems more attributable to parental reticence than to defendants' errors. The parents, not the school committee, had a relationship with Landmark and with the psychologist. They had removed Matthew from the Concord schools and had specifically asked Concord to refrain from independently testing the child. Thus, the LEA, by virtue of appellants' actions, was in a perilously poor position to remedy the omissions. The law ought not to abet parties who block assembly of the required team and then, dissatisfied with the ensuing IEP, attempt to jettison it because of problems created by their own obstructionism. 53 Further pursuit of this subject would be supererogatory. Particularly in the face of (1) the parents' studied lack of cooperation with ongoing attempts to develop the 1987-88 IEP, and (2) the lack of any indication of procedural bad faith on appellees' part, see Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 783, we are satisfied--as was the district court--that Concord fulfilled the essence of its procedural responsibilities. Compare, e.g., Denton, 895 F.2d at 982.