Court Opinion

ID: 9779470
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 21:51:38.584603+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:33:26.648499
License: Public Domain

COVINGTON, Judge,
concurring.
I concur completely in the majority opinion. I write separately to note that secondary and elementary schools may want to consider addressing the possibility of exclusion from the full panoply of process dictated by Chapter 536 when a case is deemed to be contested because a hearing is required by law, as did certain institutions of higher education through enactment of section 536.018, *331RSMo 1994. The majority opinion appropriately does not reach the question of how much process actually is due in a case such as the one sub judice. Applicability of the Missouri Administrative Procedure (Act) in this case, however, appears necessarily to require extensive process. See, e.g., §§ 536.063, 536.067, 536.068, 536.070, 536.073, 536.077, 536.080, 536.083, RSMo 1994. In addition, the Act provides for the recovery of attorney’s fees by a prevailing party. § 536.087.1, RSMo 1994.
The provisions of the Act itself subsume the question of how much process, as a constitutional requirement, would be due in this case. While Goss v. Lopez, 419 U.S. 565, 581-84, 95 S.Ct. 729, 739-41, 42 L.Ed.2d 725 (1975), clearly suggests that a hearing affording more than the informal proceeding in Goss may be required, it by no means prescribes in every case the process mandated under the Act. If secondary and elementary schools find the necessary result in this case unduly burdensome, their concern could be addressed by the legislature.