Opinion ID: 3202046
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Delegation of Placement Decision

Text: The record leaves no doubt that the district court delegated the question of whether M.S. should be placed at Perkins to M.S.’s IEP team. The question of whether it was appropriate for the district court to “remand” the propriety of M.S.’s placement was raised for the first time by the district court at the hearing on the parties cross-motions for judgment on the administrative record. Both -11- parties responded by asserting the decision was one the district court should make as part of an order requiring compensatory services if the district court were to determine USDB denied M.S. a FAPE. In its written order, the district court specifically noted that the placement issue raised by J.S. was substantive in nature and “must be addressed.” The district court concluded, however, that M.S.’s IEP team was best suited to make the decision. Finally, in its order granting J.S. a partial award of fees, the district court made clear it “sought the IEP Team’s expertise in fashioning an updated IEP, including determination of the appropriate placement for M.S.” With this background, it cannot be credibly argued that the district court did not delegate the issue of M.S.’s placement to her IEP team. Nevertheless, USDB argues the district court did nothing more than enter an award of compensatory services to address implementation errors that occurred during the 2011-12 school year and left to the IEP the ministerial task of implementing that order. In support of this interpretation of the district court order, USDB cites to three district court cases in which the courts affirmed orders by hearing officers that allowed IEP teams to implement orders of compensatory services. 6 See 6 None of these cases involve a district court order remanding a claim to an IEP team. Instead, they each involve a federal court challenge to a purported delegation by a due-process hearing officer to an IEP team. Like the parties, however, we conclude this procedural difference does not mean the cited cases are irrelevant to the question on appeal. In an appeal from a decision of a hearing officer following a due process hearing, a district court shall “receive the records (continued...) -12- Struble v. Fallbrook Union High Sch. Dist., No. 07-cv-2328, 2011 WL 291217 (S.D. Cal. Jan. 27, 2011); A.L. ex rel. L.L. v. Chi. Pub. Sch. Dist. No. 299, No. 10- C-494, 2011 WL 5828209 (N.D. Ill. Nov. 18, 2011); State v. Zachary B. ex rel. Jennifer B., No. 08-00499, 2009 WL 1585816 (D. Hawaii June 5, 2009). USDB’s reliance on these cases is misplaced. In none of the cited cases did the hearing officer or district court refuse to address a validly exhausted issue. Instead, in each case the district court or hearing officer resolved a concrete issue and ordered specific relief, but left insignificant implementation details to be incorporated into an IEP. Struble, 2011 WL 291217 at -8 (upholding an order by a hearing officer for the parties to develop a new IEP which would permit the student to work toward a diploma because the order “did not give the IEP team authority to change or reduce the remedy in any way”); A.L., 2011 WL 5828209 at  (upholding an order directing “the IEP team to develop an IEP that includes 6 (...continued) of the administrative proceedings,” “hear additional evidence at the request of a party,” and “basing its decision on the preponderance of the evidence, . . . grant such relief as [it] determines is appropriate.” 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(2)(C). This court has made clear that this type of review “differs substantially from judicial review of other agency actions.” Murray v. Montrose Cty. Sch. Dist. RE-1J, 51 F.3d 921, 927 (10th Cir. 1995) (quotation omitted). Under IDEA’s judicial review provisions, the district court “must decide independently whether the requirements of the IDEA are met.” Id. (quotation omitted). Thus, the district court is, in effect, acting like an ultimate due-process hearing officer. See id. at 927 & n.11. Compare 20 U.S.C. § 1415(f)(3)(E) (setting out role of impartial due-process hearing officer), with id. § 1415(i)(2)(C) (setting out federal court’s role). For that reason, cases addressing the propriety or impropriety of a hearing officer delegating an issue for decision to an IEP team are sufficiently analogous to be relevant to the issue before the court in this case. -13- reading instruction presented through a multisensory approach” (quotation and alteration omitted)); Zachary B., 2009 WL 1585816 at  (affirming order of hearing officer which required weekly one-on-one tutoring sessions with a particular educator and directed that the educator craft a tutoring program to the student’s particular needs). Here, the district court refused outright to resolve the placement issue, leaving the matter entirely to the discretion of the IEP team on remand. USDB has not cited, and this court has not found, a single case approving the wholesale remand by a district court to an IEP team of a properly exhausted request for compensatory services following a determination that a covered student had been denied a FAPE. In analogous circumstances, however, two circuits have held that IDEA does not allow the kind of delegation at issue in this case. Both the Sixth and D.C. Circuits have held that IDEA does not allow an IEP team to assume the authority given a hearing officer. Bd. of Educ. of Fayette Cty. v L.M., 478 F.3d 307, 317-18 (6th Cir. 2007) (noting the case “raises the fundamental issue of whether the details of a compensatory-education award can be remanded to the [IEP team] and still comply with the statutory scheme of the IDEA” and answering that question in the negative); Reid ex rel. Reid v. D.C., 401 F.3d 516, 521, 526-27 (D.C. Cir. 2005) (concluding that a hearing officer’s award of compensatory education that allowed the student’s IEP team to “reduce or discontinue” the compensatory education as it saw fit was inconsistent with -14- IDEA’s statutory scheme). In Reid, a hearing officer determined the school district denied a covered student a FAPE and ordered compensatory education services. 401 F.3d at 521. The hearing officer left it for the IEP team, however, to determine when to terminate the compensatory education services. Id. Likewise, in L.M., the hearing officer determined the school district denied the student a FAPE and ordered 125 hours of compensatory education services. 478 F.3d at 312. At the school’s request, an appeal board altered the remedy. Id. Instead of requiring a certain number of hours of compensatory education, the appeals board ordered the student’s IEP team to determine the type and duration of compensatory services the student was to receive. Id. The courts in Reid and L.M. held that because IDEA prohibits due process hearings from being conducted by an employee of the agency involved in the education or care of the child, “the hearing officer may not delegate his authority to a group that includes an individual specifically barred from performing the hearing officer’s functions.” Reid, 401 F.3d at 526; L.M., 478 F.3d at 317; see also 20 U.S.C. § 1415(f)(3)(A) (setting out limits on who can serve as a hearing officer). In so ruling, L.M. noted that when a student is still enrolled in the school that caused the violation, the majority of members of the student’s IEP team are employees of that school district. This gives the school district undue influence on the delegated decision. 478 F.3d at 318. The analysis set out in Reid and L.M. is compelling and this court hereby adopts it as our own. -15- M.S. is still enrolled at USDB and, thus, the vast majority of M.S.’s IEP team are employees of USDB. As recognized by L.M., this would give USDB undue influence over the decision of whether M.S. is to remain at USDB or be privately placed at Perkins at USDB’s expense. This is a particularly meaningful conflict of interest given that M.S.’s IEP team continued to insist through the proceedings in the district court that the appropriate placement for M.S. was in the Provo School District. After all, “[c]ompensatory education involves discretionary, prospective, injunctive relief crafted by a court to remedy what might be termed an educational deficit created by an educational agency’s failure over a given period of time to provide a FAPE to a student.” G. ex rel. RG v. Fort Bragg Dependent Schs., 343 F.3d 295, 309 (4th Cir. 2003) (emphasis added). Allowing the educational agency that failed or refused to provide the covered student with a FAPE to determine the remedy for that violation is simply at odds with the review scheme set out at § 1415(i)(2)(C). Furthermore, as noted by J.S., such an approach could trap M.S. in an endless cycle of costly and timeconsuming litigation. That is, by remanding the placement issue to the IEP team, J.S. will have no recourse but to seek another due process hearing, and potentially file another federal lawsuit should the IEP team refuse to place M.S. at Perkins. This court thus concludes that the district court did, indeed, delegate the issue of M.S.’s placement to M.S.’s IEP team. We further conclude that such delegation is at odds with the review scheme set out in 20 U.S.C. § 1415. See -16- Murray ex rel. Murray v. Montrose Cty. Sch. Dist. RE-1J, 51 F.3d 921, 928 (10th Cir. 1995) (holding this court reviews the district court’s interpretation of IDEA de novo). Thus, we must remand this case to the district court to vacate its order and to resolve in the first instance whether M.S. should be placed at Perkins to compensate for USDB’s failure to provide her with a FAPE. 7 In so ordering, this court recognizes that the passage of time and additional developments might bear significantly on the issue of M.S.’s placement. IDEA, however, allows for the presentation of additional evidence at the request of a party and empowers the district court to “grant such relief as [it] determines is appropriate.” 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(2)(C)(ii).