Opinion ID: 2169865
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: Inadequacy of the Remedy

Text: The plaintiff next argues that the department of education could not afford him an adequate remedy because the department of education had no power to award private school expenses to plaintiff, and the 2003-04 school year was over by the time the motion to dismiss had been filed. It is clear that courts retain the power to order school authorities to reimburse parents for their expenditures on private special education for a child if the court ultimately determines that such placement, rather than a proposed IEP, is proper   . School Committee of Burlington, Massachusetts v. Department of Education of Massachusetts, 471 U.S. 359, 369, 105 S.Ct. 1996, 85 L.Ed.2d 385 (1985). Even when an administrative agency lacks that authority to award money damages for an IDEA-based claim, [10] a litigant cannot render that administrative process futile simply by claiming money damages. Frazier, 276 F.3d at 64; see also Rafferty, 315 F.3d at 26 (applying Frazier ). The administrative agency may still be able to craft some other satisfactory remedy, and, in the event that no resolution is reached, the administrative process, at the very least, should facilitate the development of a useful record. Frazier, 276 F.3d at 62. Under Frazier, plaintiff's argument fails; he may not simply bypass the administrative process because he has requested money damages.