Opinion ID: 770326
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Brought under this Section

Text: 22 As noted, S 1415(i)(3)(B) authorizes a court to award attorney fees in actions or proceedings brought under this section. As used in that subsection, the word section refers to the entire statute. Cf. 20 U.S.C. S 1415(i)(2)(A) (Any party aggrieved by the findings and decision made under subsection (f) or (k) of this section . . . .) (emphasis added). In other words, the phrase, brought under this section, as used in S 1415(i)(3)(B), means brought underS 1415. Accordingly, if the CRP is an action or proceeding that is brought under S 1415, a court may award attorney fees to parents who are prevailing parties. 23 Section 1415(b)(6) 5 requires states to adopt procedures that provide the parents of disabled children with the opportunity to pursue complaints with respect to their children's education. In this regard, states are required to provide parents who file such complaints with an opportunity for an impartial due process hearing. 20 U.S.C. S 1415(f)(1). As discussed above, such hearings are one way, but not the only way, by which the parents of a disabled child can pursue complaints regarding their child's education. The regulations, the validity of which are not being challenged here, also require states to adopt CRPs which, like due process hearings, are designed to address S 1415(b)(6) complaints. See 34 C.F.R. S 300.660-.662. 6 The regulations recognize that the CRP and impartial due process hearings both are designed to address S 1415(b)(6) complaints. For example, the regulations specifically address situations in which the same complaint is the subject of both a CRP and an impartial due process hearing. See 34 C.F.R. S 300.661(c). 24 The CRP and the due process hearing procedure are simply alternative (or even serial) means of addressing a S 1415(b)(6) complaint. The CRP is designed to provide parents and school districts with mechanisms that allow them to resolve differences without resort to more costly and litigious resolution through due process. Comment to CRP Regs., 64 Fed. Reg. 12646 (1999). Although different, a CRP is no less a proceeding under S 1415 than is a due process hearing. There is nothing in the statute or regulations that tends to show that Congress meant to allow an award of attorney fees to only those parents who choose to invoke one means of resolving a S 1415(b)(6) complaint and not another. Defendant's argument would require us to rewrite the statute to substitute certain subsections of this section for this section in S 1415(i)(3)(B). That we cannot do. See Badaracco v. Commissioner, 464 U.S. 386, 398 (1984) (Courts are not authorized to rewrite a statute because they might deem its effects susceptible of improvement.). 25 Moreover, Defendant's position conflicts with the policy behind the adoption of the CRP -to encourage less costly and less litigious resolution of IDEA complaints. Were we to accept Defendant's argument, the parents of disabled children would be forced to pursue the longer and more expensive due process procedure to recover their attorney fees. 26 Defendant argues that the CRP is not brought under this section because the CRP is provided for only in the regulations and not expressly in S 1415. The regulations concerning the CRP were promulgated pursuant to the Secretary of Education's general authority to make promulgate, issue, rescind, and amend rules and regulations governing the manner of operation of, and governing the application programs administered by, the Department. 20 U.S.C. S 1221e-3. The CRP is designed to resolve complaints by organizations or individuals that a public agency has violated the IDEA. See 34 C.F.R. SS 300.660, 300.662. The CRP regulations make clear that, in certain circumstances, complaints that can be addressed by resort to a due process hearing underS 1415(f) also can be addressed through the CRP. See 34 C.F.R. S 300.661(c). In other words, the CRP encompasses (but may not be limited to) complaints under S 1415. We need not decide whether all CRP complaints are brought under S 1415. But, to the extent that a CRP complaint addresses a dispute that is subject to resolution in a S 1415 due process hearing, the CRP is a proceeding brought under  S 1415.