Opinion ID: 2995557
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Deference to the Findings of the

Text: Administrative Hearing Officer We find as an initial matter that the district court gave proper weight to the findings of the hearing officer at the administrative proceedings. Because school authorities are better suited than are federal judges to determine educational policy, the district court is required, in its independent evaluation of the evidence, to give due deference to the results of the administrative proceedings. Id. (citing Heather S. v. Wisconsin, 125 F.3d 1045 (7th Cir. 1997)). The hearing officer correctly applied the burden of proof and found that the district satisfactorily showed that its proposed IEP was adequate under the IDEA. The district was not required to prove that Beth received no educational benefit at her local school, as her parents suggest. We also find that the hearing officer did not err as a matter of law in failing to consider whether the ELS placement was the least restrictive environment;/3 he did consider whether it was the least restrictive appropriate environment, that is, whether Beth would be mainstreamed to the maximum extent appropriate--the proper question under the LRE analysis discussed below. The district court, therefore, did not err in giving deference to the administrative decision after independently evaluating the evidence and even, in this case, updating it with an evidentiary hearing.