Opinion ID: 769676
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: IDEA Violation

Text: 9 As stated above, the district court decided this case on stipulated facts. It is clear from those facts that the IDEA was violated. The IDEA requires that school districts educate disabled students to twenty-one years of age, unless doing so is inconsistent with state law. See 20 U.S.C. 1412(a)(1)(B)(i). Arkansas law mandates that school districts educate persons either to the age of twenty-one or until they complete the secondary education program. See Ark. Code Ann. 6-18-202(b)(1) (LEXIS 1999). Thus, under the IDEA, a disabled student in Arkansas must be educated to the age of twenty-one or until he/she completes the state's secondary education program. 10 The IDEA provides, however, that a disabled student may graduate before one of these requirements is met if procedural safeguards are followed. See generally 20 U.S.C. 1415(b). Foremost among these are prior written notice to the parent whenever school officials propose a change in the educational placement of the child, id. at 1415 (b)(3), and the opportunity for the parent to present complaints regarding the proposed change, id. at 1415(b)(6). 11 Neither party disputes that Brenda Birmingham is disabled as defined by the IDEA, nor that her graduation constituted a change in placement. Nonetheless, at the time of her graduation, Brenda was eighteen and had not completed Arkansas's secondary education program, nor had Rose been given prior written notice of the graduation decision or an opportunity challenge it. 12 The school district contends that notice to Rose was not required . It cites 20 U.S.C. 1415(m), which provides that parental rights may be transferred to the disabled student upon the student's eighteenth birthday unless the student is adjudicated incompetent. The district argues that because Brenda was eighteen and adjudicated competent by the Probate Court, Rose no longer had parental rights, and written notice to her was unnecessary. This argument is unpersuasive. 13 Section 1415(m) was not amended to the IDEA until 1997. However, Brenda was graduated on May 25, 1995. Thus, at the time the school district proposed graduating Brenda, the IDEA did not provide for the transfer of parental rights to the disabled child. Rose then retained her parental rights under the IDEA, and written notice to her was required. Failure to provide such notice violated the IDEA.