Opinion ID: 4538518
Heading Depth: 3
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Eligibility Determination

Text: The District’s evaluation, resting as it did on incomplete data, concluded that the Student is not eligible for special education. On appeal, the District stands by that conclusion and asserts that the determinations of the ALJ and district court to the -9- contrary are erroneous. To be eligible for a FAPE that includes special education and related services, a student must be a “child with a disability.” 20 U.S.C. §§ 1401(3), (9), 1414(d), 34 C.F.R. § 300.500(a), (c); see Endrew F. ex rel. Joseph F. v. Douglas Cty. Sch. Dist. Re-1, 137 S. Ct. 988, 993–94 (2017). The IDEA defines a child with a disability as “a child . . . with,” among other ailments, a “serious emotional disturbance” or “other health impairments . . . who, by reason thereof, needs special education and related services.”1 20 U.S.C. § 1401(3). A “serious emotional disturbance” is: [A] condition exhibiting one or more of the following characteristics over a long period of time and to a marked degree that adversely affects a child’s educational performance: (A) An inability to learn that cannot be explained by intellectual, sensory, or health factors. (B) An inability to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers. (C) Inappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances. (D) A general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression. (E) A tendency to develop physical symptoms or fears associated with personal or school problems. 34 C.F.R. § 300.8(c)(4)(i). An “other health impairment” means: 1 “Serious emotional disturbance” and “other health impairments” are the federal analogs of Minnesota regulations denominating “emotional or behavioral disorders” and “other health disabilities,” respectively. Compare 34 C.F.R. § 300.8(c)(4)(i) (serious emotional disturbance), and id. § 300.8(c)(9) (other health impairment), with Minn. R. 3525.1329 (emotional behavioral disorders), and id. Minn. R. 3525.1335 (other health disabilities). -10- having limited strength, vitality, or alertness, including a heightened alertness to environmental stimuli, that results in limited alertness with respect to the educational environment, that— (i) Is due to chronic or acute health problems such as asthma, attention deficit disorder or attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, diabetes, epilepsy, a heart condition, hemophilia, lead poisoning, leukemia, nephritis, rheumatic fever, sickle cell anemia, and Tourette syndrome; and (ii) Adversely affects a child’s educational performance. Id. § 300.8(c)(9). Under the District’s analysis the Student’s symptoms are simply insufficient to constitute a “serious emotional disturbance” or “other health impairments.” However, the preponderance of the evidence in the administrative record indicates the Student has both conditions. For years the Student has suffered from a panoply of mentalhealth issues that have kept her in her bedroom, socially isolated, and terrified to attend school. Cf. Indep. Sch. Dist. No. 284, 258 F.3d at 776 (discussing eligibility for special education where the facts “show[ed] that [student’s] truancy and defiance of authority result[ed] from a genuine emotional disturbance rather than from a purely moral failing”). The Student was absent from the classroom not as a result of “bad choices” causing her “to fail in school,” for which the IDEA would provide no remedy, but rather as a consequence of her compromised mental health, a situation to which the IDEA applies. Id. at 775. The administrative record demonstrates the Student has a serious emotional disturbance as she is unable “to build or maintain satisfactory interpersonal relationships with peers and teachers.” 34 C.F.R. § 300.8(c)(4)(i)(B). The Student also displayed “[i]nappropriate types of behavior or feelings under normal circumstances” and has been living with a “general pervasive mood of unhappiness or depression.” Id. § 300.8(c)(4)(i)(C), (D). The evidence in the record also shows that the Student suffers from “limited . . . vitality” and “a heightened alertness to -11- environmental stimuli” that are “due to chronic or acute health problems,” including ADHD, all of which are symptoms of “other health impairments.” Id. § 300.8(c)(9). The Student’s absences from the classroom has put her well behind her peers in, among other things, earning the number of credits needed to graduate, and has therefore adversely affect[ed] her educational performance.” Id. at 300.08(c)(9)(ii); see id. § 300.320(a)(2)(i)(A) (requiring special education be “designed to . . . enable the child to be involved in and make progress in the general education curriculum”). Despite this evidence, the District maintains that the Student is simply too intellectually gifted to qualify for special education. The District suggests the Student’s high standardized test scores and her exceptional performance on the rare occasions she made it to class are strong indicators that there are no services it can provide that would improve her educational situation. The District confuses intellect for an education. See Florence Cty. Sch. Dist. Four v. Carter ex rel. Carter, 510 U.S. 7, 13 (1993) (“IDEA was intended to ensure that children with disabilities receive an education that is both appropriate and free.”). The IDEA guarantees disabled students access to the latter, no matter their innate intelligence. More practically, the positive results of the private tutoring and online learning indicate that the nearly three years where the Student foundered were not inevitable but the direct result of insufficient individualized attention under an appropriate IEP. The record demonstrates that the Student’s intellect alone was insufficient for her to progress academically and that she was in need of special education and related services. This Student may not present the paradigmatic case of a special-education student, but her situation does not vitiate the District’s duty under the IDEA to provide her with a FAPE. “The IDEA requires public school districts to educate ‘a wide spectrum of handicapped children,’” C.B. ex rel. B.B, 636 F.3d at 989 (quoting Rowley, 458 U.S. at 202), including those whose handicap is not cognitive. See Indep. Sch. Dist. No. 284, 258 F.3d at 777 (“If the problem prevents a disabled child from receiving educational benefit, then it should not matter that the problem is not cognitive -12- in nature or that it causes the child even more trouble outside the classroom than within it.”). In Independent School District No. 284, for example, the court held that an educational placement in a residential facility pursuant to the IDEA was necessary for a student whose psychological infirmities contributed to her truancy and consequent lack of academic credit, even though she “ha[d] no learning disability” and “tests reveal[ed] [her] to be a shrewd problem solver.” 258 F.3d at 777–78. The Student is eligible for special education and a state-funded FAPE like every other “child with a disability.” 20 U.S.C. § 1401(3). This “specially designed instruction,” whether “conducted in the classroom, in the home, in hospitals and institutions, [or] in other settings,” id. §1401(29), must be “reasonably calculated to enable [her] to make progress” and “appropriately ambitious in light of [her] circumstances,” Endrew F. ex rel. Joseph F., 137 S. Ct. at 999–1000.