Opinion ID: 743507
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Particular Facts and Proceedings

Text: 7 At an early age, Michael F. was diagnosed with, and began to receive medication for, Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHA). Based on this condition, Michael was classified as other health impaired and was thus entitled to receive educational services under the IDEA from Cy-Fair ISD after he and his family moved there in the summer of 1992. 8 Michael enrolled as a sixth grader at Cy-Fair ISD's Hamilton Intermediate School (Hamilton) for the 1992-93 school year. During this school year, Michael was diagnosed with Tourette's Syndrome (Tourette's), a neurological or psychiatric behavior disorder typified by involuntary motor and vocal ticks. Michael's case of Tourette's is manifested by symptoms of (1) hyperactivity and decreased attention, (2) obsessive compulsive behavior, (3) rapid mood swings, and (4) ticks and twitches. 9 Acting through an ARD Committee convened in August 1992, Cy-Fair ISD instituted a provisional IEP for Michael's 1992-1993 school year at Hamilton. Under this initial IEP, Michael attended regular classes and had access to a content mastery class. In October of 1992, the ARD Committee supplemented Michael's IEP with a behavioral plan, under which Michael's teachers could discipline him with time-out and cooling off periods when he became agitated, send him to counseling sessions with the assistant principal, or send him to special discipline management classes. Michael's parents approved both the initial IEP and the October behavioral plan. 10 Michael's deportment problems ebbed and flowed throughout the 1992-93 school year. During the fall semester, his misbehavior consisted mainly of relatively minor disruptions such as yelling inappropriately on the bus and in class, calling other students and himself gay, touching students on the legs in a sexual way, talking back to his teacher, licking his books and papers in class, one scuffle, and one fight. This behavior landed Michael in the principal's office, detention hall, or discipline management class on numerous occasions and also resulted in several temporary suspensions from the school bus. 11 Beginning in January of 1993, however, when Michael was first diagnosed with Tourette's and his medications were juggled in an attempt to reduce the severity of his Tourette's' symptoms, his behavior worsened. Not only did he continue to disrupt class and cause trouble elsewhere in the school environment, but Michael increasingly became involved in fights, and on February 15 and 17--just when a powerful and potentially beneficial drug with strong side effects was being introduced into Michael's medication regimen--his temper flared in two physically violent episodes. As a result of these episodes, Michael was removed from school on an emergency basis and faced possible expulsion until the ARD Committee determined, after receiving reports from Michael's attending psychiatrist and psychologist, that Michael's misbehavior was directly related to his disability. Agreeing with the recommendation of Michael's psychiatrist, the ARD Committee assigned Michael to a homebound placement for approximately six weeks so that his doctors could complete medication trials and stabilize his medical treatment, after which the Committee could reevaluate Michael's IEP. 12 Just before Michael's outburst of physically violent behavior in mid-February, however, the ARD Committee had resolved that Michael's needs would be better addressed with a more consistent behavioral structure throughout the day. It had, therefore, placed him in a self-contained, adaptive behavior classroom for three subjects (English/Language Arts, Math, and Social Studies), 15 while leaving him in regular education classes for Science and Physical Education (P.E.) The ARD Committee also supplemented Michael's program by providing him with a social behavior curriculum in his adaptive behavior classes, psychological counseling services, and a discipline contingency plan. 13 When Michael returned to Hamilton on April 2, he was again placed in a slightly expanded version of the adaptive behavior program that he had only briefly begun in mid-February. Michael's disruptive and aggressive behavior continued more or less unabated for the remainder of the school year, resulting in several short suspensions, including one for the last two days of school after he announced in class that he was going to kill his mother, spat in a student's face, hit the student, and directed obscene language at his teacher. 14 When the ARD Committee convened on May 26, 1993 to review Michael's situation and plan for the next school year, it learned that Michael was passing all of his courses and had made progress towards achieving all of the academic goals listed in his IEP, but had not yet achieved mastery in any academic area except for general science. On the deportment front, Michael's adaptive behavior teacher noted that Michael was able to refocus after incidents of misconduct. Largely at the insistence of his parents who feared that his continued exposure, in adaptive behavior classes, to other children with emotional and behavioral problems would harm Michael, the ARD Committee determined that Michael could be placed in the regular education program at his local junior high school for the 1993-94 school year. Michael's parents and the ARD Committee hoped that the combined effect of a new school, the intervening summer recess, and attention to medication would improve Michael's behavior. Michael's IEP for the impending school year, however, still included a number of support services and plans specifically designed to address Michael's behavioral problems. Among these were a discipline contingency plan for teachers to use in dealing with Michael's conduct, a behavioral intervention plan, psychological counseling services, a tracking teacher to monitor Michael's progress, and a handpicked team of teachers who were to receive training on how to cope with Michael's disabilities and behavior. At the conclusion of the meeting, Michael's parents signed the Committee's report, noting their agreement with the IEP and Michael's placement for the 1993-1994 school year. 15 Over the summer, Michael's behavior at home deteriorated to the point that in late July his parents considered following his psychologist's advice and hospitalizing him or placing him in a summer program at a residential treatment center. But Michael's parents ultimately chose to keep him at home for the duration of the summer. 16 In August 1993, Michael began seventh grade at Cy-Fair ISD's Bleyl Junior High School (Bleyl). During his first month of school, he continued to disrupt class with some frequency, exhibited disrespect for and even directed insults at authority on occasion, and several times became entangled in fights. His misbehavior resulted primarily in time-outs, detention hall assignments and cooling off sessions at the assistant principal's office, but on three occasions he was sent home from school for the rest of the day. 17 In light of these continuing behavioral problems, the ARD Committee convened a meeting on October 4, 1993, which was attended by Michael's parents, the chairman of the Special Education Department at Bleyl, a psychologist from the school district who had worked with Michael, an educational diagnostician from the school district, the assistant principal at Bleyl responsible for Michael, and Michael's tracking teacher. The Committee was informed that, although Michael was passing every course but one and was receiving satisfactory conduct marks in every class but two, he was having difficulty turning in homework assignments in the majority of his courses and was still experiencing behavioral problems. The Committee therefore altered Michael's IEP, placing him in adaptive behavior classes for Math, English/Language Arts, and Texas History and leaving him in regular education classes for Science, Reading, Industrial Technology, Speech, and P.E. The Committee also determined that Michael was eligible for an optional content mastery class and modified his discipline contingency plan by providing teachers with the option of sending Michael to a discipline management class for the remainder of a class period, as opposed to an emergency removal from class, when his misbehavior escalated. Once again, Michael's parents approved the IEP that resulted from this meeting. 18 On the very next day of school, however, before he had even begun the new adaptive behavior program designed by the ARD Committee, Michael got in a fight with a girl in class and, before the fight was broken up, had pinned the girl to the floor with his knee and pulled out some of her hair. As a result of this incident, Michael was emergency removed for the remainder of that school day and the next day. Michael's parents perceived this incident as a serious escalation of Michael's behavioral problems and therefore renewed their previous consideration of alternative placements for Michael, including a residential psychiatric institution. 19 On October 7, 1993, Michael began his partial placement in adaptive behavior classes. He continued to misbehave on the school bus, disrupt classes on occasion, and in a few instances refuse to suit up for P.E., all of which necessitated time-outs and cooling off sessions with the assistant principal. Still, his physical aggression from this date forward until his removal from Bleyl consisted of but a single scuffle in P.E. Furthermore, during the remainder of his time at Bleyl, he was only emergency removed from school once, for half a day, after refusing to take medication and being disrespectful to a school nurse. On his own volition, Michael later apologized to the nurse for his behavior. Throughout this period, Michael ate lunch in the school cafeteria unattended and passed through the school hallways without being escorted by school staff. 20 Michael's academic performance during his final month at Bleyl was inconsistent but far from hopeless. A progress report issued on October 26 for the first nine weeks of school indicated that Michael was failing or had incompletes in all but one subject. Nevertheless, Michael's final report card from Bleyl, issued in November after he was removed by his parents, reflected that Michael had turned in previously incomplete assignments and was again passing in his three adaptive behavior classes (Math, English/Language Arts, and Texas History) and in one other academic course (Industrial Technology), was close to passing in two others (Reading and Science), and was only clearly failing in one (Speech). As discussed more fully below, Michael's teachers and the assistant principal have offered sensitive and detailed assessments of his academic and behavioral performances during his enrollment of approximately two months at Bleyl. 21 Michael's parents removed him from Bleyl and Cy-Fair ISD on November 4, 1993. On November 8, he was admitted to the Provo Canyon School (Provo Canyon), a 24-hour residential treatment center located in Provo, Utah. Michael remained at Provo Canyon until February 11, 1994, when his parents brought Michael back home because they could no longer afford the private institution. 16 22 Meanwhile, on November 18, 1993, an ARD Committee meeting had been convened to consider Michael's parents' request that Cy-Fair ISD approve Michael's placement at Provo Canyon and reimburse them for the costs of the placement. The ARD Committee modified Michael's IEP slightly, in absentia, by deleting Speech class from his curriculum and substituting a social behavior class and by deleting the requirement that he change clothes for P.E. But the Committee did not accede to Michael's parents' request that the school district approve Michael's educational placement at Provo Canyon and reimburse them for the costs of this placement. The Committee concluded that his partial placement in the adaptive behavior classroom at Bleyl was the least restrictive environment in which he could receive an appropriate public education under the IDEA. 23 As was their right under the IDEA, 17 Michael's parents sought review of the school district's denial of their request for reimbursement in an impartial due process hearing before the TEA. A TEA hearing officer conducted eleven days of hearings in April 1993 and, in a lengthy opinion issued on June 17, 1994, found that (1) the IEPs developed by Cy-Fair ISD for Michael's 1993-1994 school year were inappropriate, (2) Michael's placement at Provo Canyon was appropriate, and (3) Michael's parents were therefore entitled to reimbursement from Cy-Fair ISD for the $15,978.20 costs of the educational and related services (but not the medical services) Michael received at Provo Canyon. 24 The school district in turn exercised its prerogative under the IDEA and appealed this decision to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Texas. 18 After a one day hearing in which it received additional evidence, the district court reversed the hearing officer's decision, 19 and, in a separate order, awarded $6,770.05 in costs to the school district as a matter of course under Rule 54(d)(1). 20 Michael's parents have timely appealed from the district court's final judgment and its order awarding costs. 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