Opinion ID: 164926
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: introduction

Text: 1 Plaintiffs-Appellants L.B. and J.B. are the parents of K.B., a child who was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder in 1997. After several meetings and the establishment of K.B.'s individualized education program (IEP), which is required by the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA), the Nebo School District (Nebo) offered to place K.B. in the Park View Special Education Preschool (Park View) starting in the fall of 1998. Although Nebo considered the mainstream setting of Appellants' choice, Nebo offered Park View 1 as the only school placement that it thought appropriate for K.B. 2 Park View is populated mainly by disabled students, but includes thirty to fifty percent typically developing children (typical children) who are present for the full length of the preschool classes. These typical children interact with the disabled children. Nebo offered to increase the ratio of typical children at Park View to accommodate Appellants' concerns. Although K.B. functions academically at a higher level than most of the disabled children at Park View, various skill levels were taught at the school that could have met many of K.B.'s needs and goals. 3 In addition to the Park View placement, Nebo offered to provide K.B. with a few hours per week of speech and occupational therapy and eight to fifteen hours per week of Applied Behavioral Analysis (ABA). Both parties agree that ABA was an appropriate method to teach K.B. during the relevant time period. Nebo concedes that K.B. needed some level of ABA to make academic progress. The parties disagree, however, about how much ABA was required. Nebo argues that eight to fifteen hours per week of ABA programming, in addition to ten classroom hours per week at Park View, would have sufficed to meet K.B.'s needs. Appellants, on the other hand, argue that the IEP goals could not have been met with anything less than forty hours per week of ABA programming. 4 Appellants declined the Park View placement offer and kept K.B. in a mainstream private preschool where K.B. was progressing successfully with the use of a supplementary aide and at-home ABA program. K.B. received thirty-five to forty hours per week of ABA instruction (intensive ABA program), which included ten classroom hours per week at the mainstream private preschool. Despite subsequent IEP meetings, Nebo never offered to pay for K.B.'s supplementary aide or to fund her intensive ABA program in full. 5 In December 1999, Appellants requested an administrative due process hearing to seek reimbursement for the cost of K.B.'s intensive ABA program 2 and supplementary aide. Appellants requested reimbursement for their expenditures from October 2, 1997 through the end of K.B.'s 1999-2000 preschool year. The due process hearing was held in March, May, and July of 2000. 6 Hearing officers preside over due process hearings. At the relevant time, persons interested in becoming due process hearing officers could present their candidacy by signing up for training. Utah's hearing officer selection process is designed to avoid appointing hearing officers who might be or appear to be biased. The Utah State Board of Education's (USBE) list of eligible hearing officers consists of private attorneys, county attorneys, an attorney from the Administrative Office of the Courts, retired university professors, retired school district employees, as well as current school district employees and attorneys. The record shows that from 1998 until K.B.'s hearing in 2000, Utah parents and disability-advocates had expressed concerns that USBE's list of hearing officers appeared to favor school districts, and that certain hearing officers were more often chosen to preside over hearings than others. 7 At the time relevant to this appeal, the hearing officers underwent training before they were allowed to preside over due process hearings. The trainers were attorneys who represented both school districts and parents, although most trainers represented school districts. Hearing officers were trained to be impartial. When initially assigned a case, the hearing officers were specifically asked if they could be impartial in that particular case and were not selected if they could not be impartial. 8 The hearing officer who presided over K.B.'s due process hearing was Dr. Steven Hirase. 3 Hirase is an assistant superintendent in the Murray School District. Hirase does not work for the Utah State Office of Education (USOE). At the relevant time, Hirase was married to a woman who worked in the Jordan School District, which is the same school district that employed Nebo's autism expert witness, Melisa Genaux. Despite this connection, there is no evidence that Hirase's wife and Genaux had ever worked together. In fact, Appellants do not even allege that the women knew each other. 9 Appellants moved to disqualify Hirase. Hirase denied the motion and presided over K.B.'s due process hearing. Hirase concluded that the 1998-1999 and the 1999-2000 IEP provided K.B. with a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) in a least restrictive environment (sometimes referred to as LRE). 10 Appellants then filed a complaint in the United States District Court for the District of Utah, seeking review of Hirase's decision and alleging, inter alia, both procedural and substantive violations of the IDEA. The substantive IDEA claim was premised on the theory that K.B. was denied a FAPE in a least restrictive environment. The procedural IDEA claim was premised on the theory that K.B. was denied an impartial hearing because Hirase was biased. Appellants also argued that they could not secure an impartial hearing officer because the USBE's list of hearing officers was aligned with the interests of school districts. Appellants sought compensatory damages to reimburse them for their expenditures on K.B.'s supplementary aide and intensive ABA program, as well as costs and attorneys' fees. No claim was made for the private preschool's tuition. 11 The parties filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The district court affirmed Hirase's decision and granted summary judgment to Nebo. In doing so, the district court reasoned that the Park View placement was the LRE for K.B. and that Appellants were not entitled to reimbursement under the IDEA for the 1997-1998 incomplete IEP. 4 The district court also concluded that Hirase was not biased against K.B. in violation of the IDEA's procedural safeguards or the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. L.B. and J.B. appeal. 12 Exercising jurisdiction pursuant 28 U.S.C. § 1291, this court affirms in part and reverses in part the district court's grant of judgment to Nebo. It grants judgment in part to Appellants and remands this case to the district court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.