Opinion ID: 437224
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Extent of the Hearing Officer's Consideration of Prior Years

Text: 31 The hearing officer took into consideration all years of John's education because she found that the Town had provided the parents with an incomplete notice of their appeal rights in June 1977, at the close of John's first year, and no written transmission of any information about parents' rights subsequent to that time. The hearing officer therefore concluded that the parents cannot be held responsible for any delay in requesting appeal and that the matter is legitimately before the Bureau 4 at this time. In Re BSEA # 2867 at 12 (Jan. 20, 1980). The Town challenges the consideration by the Bureau of prior years as well as the relevance of past alleged illegalities to a judgment regarding a prospective IEP. The cases on which it relies are inapposite, however. In both New Bedford Gas and Edison Light Co. v. Board of Assessors of Dartmouth, 368 Mass. 745, 335 N.E.2d 897, 899 (1975), and Canron, Inc. v. Board of Assessors of Everett, 366 Mass. 634, 322 N.E.2d 83, 85 (1975), the Supreme Judicial Court undertook to interpret Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 59, Sec. 59, regarding the timeliness of tax abatement petitions; no rulings were made interpreting the Massachusetts Administrative Procedure Act, Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 30A, Secs. 10, 11, which governed this case at the state hearings. 32 Moreover, the state Act, consistent with the requirements of the federal Act, expressly charges the school system with the responsibility of notifying parents of their procedural and appellate rights. Compare Mass.Gen.Laws Ann. ch. 71B, Sec. 3 with 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1415(b)(1)(D). See also Scokin v. Texas, 723 F.2d 432 (5th Cir.1984). In Rowley, the Court commented on the importance of the procedural safeguards in Sec. 1415: 33 When the elaborate and highly specific procedural safeguards embodied in Sec. 1415 are contrasted with the general and somewhat imprecise substantive admonitions contained in the Act, we think that the importance Congress attached to these procedural safeguards cannot be gainsaid. It seems to us no exaggeration to say that Congress placed every bit as much emphasis upon compliance with procedures giving parents and guardians a large measure of participation at every stage of the administrative process, see, e.g., Secs. 1415(a)-(d), as it did upon the measurement of the resulting IEP against a substantive standard. 34 Rowley 458 U.S. at 205-6, 102 S.Ct. at 3050-1. The Court further noted that adequate compliance with the procedures described would assure much of what Congress wished in the way of substantive content in an IEP. Id. Lack of notice to the parents, then, regarding their procedural rights drives a stake into the very heart of the Act. 35 Since the Town failed to give the parents proper notice, and since such notice might have led them to appeal earlier, it was reasonable for the State to hear those appeals despite their falling outside of the specified time frame, and to view the Town's lack of notice as a waiver of any time bar objection that might otherwise apply. Here, complete procedural information should have been provided to the parents in June 1977. Although the federal Act was not yet effective on that date, the state Act's provisions were in force. The hearing officer was, therefore, empowered to take into consideration the events the parents could have appealed on that date. 36 The practical effect of examining the entire course of events is limited. No hearing officer or court can turn back the clock and provide a disabled child an appropriate education for prior years; prospective relief, except for reimbursement under certain circumstances, Doe v. Brookline, 722 F.2d at 919-21, generally comprises the remedy under the Act. Anderson v. Thompson, 658 F.2d 1205, 1210-13 (7th Cir.1981). The value of considering a broader period of time, therefore, is basically evidentiary, to show procedural bad faith or a history of nonimplementation of IEPs. Further, while we do not reach the question, certain prospective relief, such as compensatory education, may arguably be ordered on the basis of prior defaults in the provision of a free appropriate public education. See Timms v. Metropolitan School District of Wabash County, 722 F.2d 1310, 1314-15 (7th Cir.1983); see also Milliken v. Bradley, 433 U.S. 267, 289-90, 97 S.Ct. 2749, 2761-62, 53 L.Ed.2d 745 (1977). We conclude that interpreting the reach of the hearing officer in this manner comports with the court's responsibility to do substantial justice. Doe v. Brookline, 722 F.2d at 917.