K.W. v. District. of Columbia
K.W. v. District. of Columbia
Opinion of the Court
This case culminates several years of administrative interactions and litigation between Plaintiffs, the parents of eighth-grade student K.W., and Defendant District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). At issue is K.W.'s Individualized Education Program, his school placement, and the process by which K.W. and his parents can vindicate his right to a free and appropriate *34public education, guaranteed to him by federal law, which DCPS appears to ignore. No parents should be required to sue DCPS each and every school year to force the school system to comply with its obligations under federal law. The Complaint allegations make out a shocking lack of compliance by DCPS.
DCPS has moved for partial dismissal of the Complaint, which K.W.'s parents oppose. Additionally, Plaintiffs seek immediate injunctive relief pursuant to the "stay-put" provision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. Defendants oppose such relief. The Court will deny the motion to dismiss and grant injunctive relief.
I. FACTS
K.W. is a 13-year old, eighth-grade student diagnosed with a Specific Learning Disability. He has also been diagnosed with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and fine motor and motor-planning disorders that cause him to reverse letters, fail to differentiate accurately between left and right, and be unable to imitate multi-step motor patterns and directions. K.W. qualifies as a child needing special education services and is entitled to a free appropriate public education (FAPE) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act,
At the end of his third-grade year in the spring of 2014, K.W.'s parents were dissatisfied with the Individualized Education Program (IEP) proposed for K.W. for the 2014-15 school year. Instead, they unilaterally placed K.W. at the Lab School of Washington, a private, special education school for students with significant learning disabilities. K.W. attended the Lab School during the 2014-15 academic year, where he received over 30 hours of specialized instruction per week across all content areas. Midway though the school year, the Lab School additionally began to provide K.W. with a double period of reading, utilizing intensive, research-based methodologies to address his disabilities.
On March 17, 2015, K.W.'s parents filed a due process complaint challenging the appropriateness of the DCPS-proposed IEP and educational (school) placement for K.W. for the 2014-15 school year. On June 8, 2015, Independent Hearing Officer Peter Vaden issued a Hearing Officer Determination (HOD) in which he found that the proposed 2014-15 IEP denied K.W. a FAPE (March 2015 HOD). See
This cycle repeated itself three more times. In the summer of 2015, K.W.'s parents met with DCPS to develop an appropriate IEP for the 2015-16 school year. The DCPS team proposed an IEP that would provide K.W. with 15 hours per week of specialized instruction to be implemented at Brent. K.W.'s parents again disagreed and filed a second due process complaint on September 10, 2015. On November 23, 2015, Independent Hearing Officer Keith Seat issued an HOD finding that the 2015-16 IEP denied a FAPE to K.W. and ordering DCPS to reimburse K.W.'s parents for his beneficial placement at the Lab School for the 2015-2016 school *35year (November 2015 HOD). DCPS did not appeal the November 2015 HOD.
In the fall of 2016, K.W.'s parents again met with DCPS to develop an appropriate IEP for the 2016-17 school year. DCPS again proposed 15 hours of specialized instruction in a public school setting and K.W.'s parents again disagreed. K.W.'s parents filed a third due process complaint on January 3, 2017, and reached a settlement with DCPS on February 1, 2017 (February 2017 Settlement). Under the February 2017 Settlement, K.W. remained at the Lab School and DCPS paid his educational expenses as required by IDEA.
In October 2017, DCPS yet again proposed an IEP for K.W. for the 2017-18 school year that would have provided just 15 hours of specialized instruction in a public school setting. K.W.'s parents again disagreed and filed a due process complaint on December 8, 2017. On March 27, 2018, Independent Hearing Officer Michael Lazan determined that DCPS had denied a FAPE to K.W. by proposing a 15-hour-per-week IEP in his local public school (March 2018 HOD). Again, the March 2018 HOD ordered DCPS to reimburse K.W.'s parents for his beneficial placement at the Lab School for the 2017-18 school year. DCPS did not appeal the March 2018 HOD.
On March 30, 2018, DCPS contacted K.W.'s parents to obtain documentation on K.W.'s education-related expenses. K.W.'s parents provided the requested documentation on May 3, 2018, and DCPS confirmed receipt. As of the filing of the instant Complaint on November 8, 2018, DCPS had not complied with the March 2018 HOD or fully reimbursed K.W.'s parents for his educational expenses for the 2017-2018 school year.
During the summer of 2018, K.W.'s parents met with DCPS to develop an IEP for the 2018-19 school year. Several members of the IEP team from DCPS were the same persons who had proposed the previous two IEPs that had been found to deny K.W. a FAPE. Nonetheless, the DCPS team again proposed only 15 hours of specialized instruction per week for K.W. in a public-school setting, i.e. , 3 hours per day, with the rest of each day to be spent in general education without support. As relevant here, the Complaint alleges that the DCPS-proposed IEP for K.W. for the 2018-19 school year was functionally identical to the DCPS-proposed IEP for K.W. for the 2017-18 school year that Hearing Officer Lazan had already found to be a denial of FAPE in the March 2018 HOD. The DCPS-proposed 2018-19 IEP for K.W. was also highly similar to the DCPS-proposed IEP for K.W. for the 2015-16 school year, also found to be a denial of FAPE (November 2015 HOD), and the DCPS-proposed IEP for K.W. for the 2016-17 school year that was resolved through the 2017 Settlement and resulted in K.W. remaining in his placement at the Lab School.
On November 8, 2018, K.W.'s parents filed the instant Complaint, alleging the denial of a FAPE for K.W. and violations of his civil rights by both DCPS and the Office of the State Superintendent of Education of the District of Columbia (OSSE). See Compl. [Dkt. 1]. On December 19, 2018, Defendants filed a motion for partial dismissal of the Complaint, including dismissal of Plaintiffs' claims as to Mayor Muriel Bowser, Interim Chancellor Amanda Alexander, and Superintendent Hansuel Kang in their official capacities. Plaintiffs oppose dismissal.
*36Plaintiffs filed a motion for stay-put relief on January 8, 2019, seeking a court order requiring DCPS to pay for K.W. at the Lab School of Washington, effective immediately and through the pendency of this litigation, and to reimburse K.W.'s parents for money already spent for K.W.'s tuition and transportation for the 2018-19 school year to date. Defendants oppose, asserting that Plaintiffs' argument for stay-put relief fails because Plaintiffs have no cause of action to enforce a favorable Hearing Officer Determination and because Plaintiffs have not exhausted their administrative remedies regarding the 2018-19 IEP.
II. LEGAL STANDARDS
A. Motion to Dismiss
Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(6) requires a complaint to be sufficient "to give the defendant fair notice of what the claim is and the grounds upon which it rests." Bell Atl. Corp. v. Twombly ,
In deciding a motion under Rule 12(b)(6), a court may consider the facts alleged in the complaint, documents attached to the complaint as exhibits or incorporated by reference, and matters about which the court may take judicial notice. Abhe & Svoboda, Inc. v. Chao ,
B. IDEA
"The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA or Act) offers States federal funds to assist in educating children with disabilities."
*37Endrew F. ex rel. Joseph F. v. Douglas Cty. School Dist. RE-1 , --- U.S. ----,
This District Court recently noted that Congress was "aware that schools had all too often denied [children with disabilities] appropriate educations without in any way consulting their parents, [so that] Congress repeatedly emphasized throughout [IDEA] the importance and indeed the necessity of parental participation in both the development of the IEP and any subsequent assessments of its effectiveness." Middleton v. District of Columbia ,
C. Stay-Put Relief Under IDEA
IDEA includes a specific stay-put provision which states:
Except as provided in subsection (k)(4), during the pendency of any proceedings conducted pursuant to this section, unless the State or local educational agency and the parents otherwise agree, the child shall remain in the then-current educational placement of the child, or, if applying for initial admission to a public school, shall, with the consent of the parents, be placed in the public school program until all such proceedings have been completed.
In evaluating requests for injunctive relief under the stay-put provision, the traditional four-part test for a preliminary injunction does not apply. See Andersen by Andersen v. District of Columbia ,
III. ANALYSIS
The Complaint alleges three counts: Count I: DCPS violated K.W.'s civil rights by its failure to pay tuition reimbursement for the 2017-18 school year; Count II: DCPS denied K.W. a FAPE for the 2018-19 school year by offering in bad faith the same IEP previously found to be a denial of FAPE; and Count III: OSSE violated K.W.'s civil rights by failing to ensure that DCPS complied with the requirements of IDEA. Additionally, Plaintiff has moved this Court for a "stay-put" Order. The motion for stay-put relief necessitates an analysis of the legitimacy of the underlying IDEA claims.
A. Count I: Failure to Comply with HOD as Civil Rights Violation
Plaintiffs assert that DCPS' failure to comply with the March 27, 2018 Hearing Officer Determination violates K.W.'s civil rights. Specifically, Plaintiffs allege that DCPS has not reimbursed them for K.W.'s educational expenses for the 2017-18 school year. Defendants respond that Count One effectively seeks enforcement of the March 27, 2018 HOD, which this Court does not have jurisdiction to review because "IDEA does not create a private right of action to challenge a school district's implementation of a HOD." MTD at 12 (emphasis in original).
The IDEA statute provides that, following a due process hearing, "[a]ny party aggrieved by the findings and decisions made under subsections (f) and (k) who does not have a right to appeal under subsection (g) and any party aggrieved by the findings and decision made under this subsection, shall have the right to bring a civil action with respect to the complaint presented pursuant to this section...."
As the D.C. Circuit further noted in B.D. , some courts have accepted the argument that
As relevant here, section 1983 provides a civil cause of action against any person "who, under color of any statute, ordinance, regulation, custom, or usage, of any State or Territory or the District of Columbia, subjects, or causes to be subjected, any citizen of the United States or other person within the jurisdiction thereof *39to the deprivation of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the Constitution and laws...."
IDEA requires the District of Columbia to create administrative procedures for deciding parental due process complaints brought under the statute.
Defendants respond that OSSE is the proper arbiter of such a dispute. OSSE's "Procedures for Complaints Regarding Special Education" provide that "[a] complaint alleging that a public agency in Part B matters, or a public agency or private service provider in Part C matters, has failed to implement a special education due process hearing officer decision resolving a due process hearing request will be reviewed and resolved by the SCO [State Compliance Office]."
The Ninth Circuit examined the use of § 1983 to enforce favorable IDEA HODs in Porter . In that case, plaintiffs sued under § 1983 and IDEA to enforce an HOD that the local education agency refused to implement.
Nothing in the regulations issued by the federal Department of Education (DoEd) and cited by Defendant necessitates a different result. The cited regulation was enacted pursuant to IDEA and cannot amend IDEA to require additional exhaustion beyond that contemplated by the statute. See 34 C.F.R. 300.152(c) ; see generally
Finally, this is not a case of K.W.'s parents attempting to "skirt the administrative remedies provided for in the IDEA simply by adding a claim for monetary relief." Douglas v. District of Columbia ,
DCPS replies that it has finally "[s]ubstantially [r]eimbursed" K.W.'s parents their costs for K.W.'s education in 2017-18, so that Plaintiffs' § 1983 claim should be found moot as a matter of judicial prudence. MTD Reply at 9-10. DCPS has been too coy by half and the Court cannot agree that it can so decide. Rather, the *41Court accepts the facts pled in the Complaint as true and will deny Defendants' motion to dismiss Count I.
B. Count II: Denial of a FAPE for 2018-19 School Year
Plaintiffs assert that DCPS denied K.W. a FAPE for the 2018-19 school year when it failed to provide K.W. with an appropriate IEP and instead offered K.W. precisely the same IEP services that a Hearing Officer had already found to deny him a FAPE in the March 2018 HOD. Defendant responds that Plaintiffs have not exhausted their administrative remedies as to the 2018 IEP by seeking a due process hearing and therefore "Plaintiffs should not be permitted to seek this Court's intervention." MTD at 8.
Plaintiffs did not file a due process complaint challenging the 2018-19 IEP proposed by DCPS, and therefore have not exhausted their administrative remedies. Administrative exhaustion is typically required in IDEA cases as a prerequisite to filing a complaint in federal court. See Q.C-C. v. District of Columbia ,
The Complaint alleges, which the Court credits at this stage and DCPS does not deny, that DCPS proposed an IEP for K.W. for the 2018-19 school year that was identical to the 2017-18 IEP in relevant part, which a Hearing Officer had found to deny K.W. a FAPE in March 2018. Compl. ¶¶ 22-24 (addressing the March 2018 HOD). In both IEPs, DCPS proposed only 15 hours of specialized instruction per week, with the rest of K.W.'s educational hours spent in a general education setting. The 2016-17 IEP also proposed only 15 hours of specialized instruction per week and was resolved by a settlement under which K.W. remained at the Lab School. Similarly, the 2015-16 IEP proposed only 15 hours of specialized instruction per week and was found by Hearing Officer Seat to deny K.W. a FAPE. Compl. ¶ 16.
Futility presents a high bar at law and is not a finding a court makes lightly. Requiring pre-litigation administrative exhaustion "prevents courts from interrupting the administrative process permanently; it allows the agency to apply its specialized expertise to the problem; it gives the agency an opportunity to correct its own errors; it ensures that there will be a complete factual record for the court to review; and it prevents the parties from undermining the agency by deliberately flouting the administrative process." Cox ,
One assumes, with faint hope, that DCPS will comply with a court Order. Assuming that it does, the futility of requiring administrative exhaustion for the 2018-19 IEP will not interrupt the administrative process improperly. It is only the obduracy of DCPS that makes Plaintiffs' claims administratively futile. Further, on the facts alleged, it is difficult to foresee how DCPS could rely on alleged "specialized expertise" or that it deserves the opportunity to correct its errors. DCPS has failed to provide a FAPE to K.W. for four consecutive school years, as demonstrated by consistent HODs (despite different Hearing Officers) and one voluntary settlement (after which DCPS retreated to its prior denials of a FAPE). The series of proposed IEPs reflects no scintilla of effort by DCPS to correct its own mistakes; instead, DCPS appears to have compounded them. Finally, this is not a case of Plaintiffs attempting to undermine the administrative process deliberately. To the contrary, K.W.'s parents have dutifully engaged in the process for four years, each time hoping to resolve the issue with DCPS and obtain a free and appropriate public education for their child to which he is legally entitled. Each time, DCPS proposed an IEP that did not respect K.W.'s rights under law. See Randolph-Sheppard Vendors of Am. v. Weinberger ,
C. Count III: OSSE Oversight Failure as Civil Rights Violation
Plaintiffs allege that OSSE, as the State Education Agency under IDEA,
D. Claims Against Defendants Alexander, Bowser, and Kang
Defendants assert that Plaintiffs' claims against Mayor Bowser, Interim Chancellor Alexander, and Superintendent Kang in their official capacities should be dismissed as redundant because *43the District of Columbia is also a named party. Suits against individuals in their official capacities "generally represent only another way of pleading an action against an entity of which an officer is an agent." Kentucky v. Graham ,
However, Plaintiffs seek more than compensatory damages-specifically injunctive and declaratory relief-in contrast to the cases cited by Defendants. See
E. Stay-Put Relief
In addition, Plaintiffs have moved for stay-put relief under IDEA. To obtain relief under the statute's stay-put provision, Plaintiffs must show that (1) proceedings under the IDEA are pending; and (2) prevention of a change in the "then-current educational placement" of the child is sought. See
Defendants argue that stay-put relief should be denied because Plaintiffs have no cause of action to enforce a favorable HOD; Plaintiffs' suit was initiated outside the 90-day period imposed by § 1415(i)(2)(B) ; and Plaintiffs have not exhausted their administrative remedies with respect to the 2018-19 proposed IEP. As discussed above, the Court finds that § 1983 provides Plaintiffs with a cause of action to enforce the March 2018 HOD. Because Plaintiffs may seek relief under § 1983, the 90-day time limitation of § 1415(i)(2)(B) does not apply. The Court *44has also determined that Plaintiffs may proceed on their claim regarding the 2018-19 proposed IEP despite their failure to exhaust administrative remedies because they have shown that doing so would be futile.
Plaintiffs have asserted, and this Court agrees, that their claims satisfy the pending IDEA proceedings requirement for stay-put relief. K.W.'s 2018-19 IEP proposes that he be moved from a private, special education school (the Lab School) to a public school, where most of his instruction would occur in a general education setting despite his repeatedly proven special needs. See Douglas ,
IV. CONCLUSION
Defendants' Motion for Partial Dismissal of the Complaint, Dkt. 6, will be granted in part and denied in part. The Court will deny the motion to dismiss as to Counts I and II and will grant the motion to dismiss as to Count III. The Court will deny Defendants' motion to dismiss the individuals named as defendants in their official capacities. Further, the Court will grant Plaintiffs' request for stay-put relief and order Defendant to maintain K.W. in his current educational placement at the Lab School-to include full reimbursement of K.W.'s family for all education and education-related transportation expenses-during the pendency of the instant litigation, including any appeals and/or remands.
See Defs.' Mot. for Partial Dismissal of the Compl. (MTD) [Dkt. 6]; Pl.'s Response in Opp'n to Defs.' Mot. for Partial Dismissal of the Compl. (MTD Opp'n) [Dkt. 10]; Defs.' Resp. to Pl.'s Opp'n to Defs.' Mot. for Partial Dismissal of the Compl. (MTD Reply) [Dkt. 12].
See Mot. for Inj. Relief Pursuant to the 'Stay-Put' Provision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Stay-Put Mot.) [Dkt. 9]; Mem. of P. & A. in Supp. of Pl.'s Mot. for Inj. Relief Pursuant to the 'Stay-Put' Provision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Stay-Put Mem.) [Dkt. 9-1]; Ex. 3, Stay-Put Mem., Hearing Officer Determination [Dkt. 9-3]; Ex. 4, Stay-Put Mot., Amended 2018-19 IEP [Dkt. 9-4]; Ex. 5, Stay-Put Mot., 2018-19 IEP Team Mtg. Notes [Dkt. 9-5]; Defs.' Opp'n to Pl.'s Mot. for Inj. Relief Pursuant to the "Stay-Put" Provision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Stay-Put Opp'n) [Dkt. 13]; Pl.'s Reply to Defs.' Opp'n to Pl.'s Mot. for Inj. Relief Pursuant to the "Stay-Put" Provision of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (Stay-Put Reply) [Dkt. 14].
Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Dist. of Columbia Formal State Complaint Policy & Procedures (revised Nov. 2009), https://osse.dc.gov/sites/default/files/dc/sites/osse/publication/attachments/State%20Complaints%20Policy%20and%20Procedure.pdf (last accessed Apr. 12, 2019).
Only Plaintiffs' § 1983 claim is relevant here because, as discussed supra , the D.C. Circuit has held that IDEA-specifically § 1415(i)(2)(A) -cannot be used to enforce an HOD. B.D. ,
While DCPS states that it does not move to dismiss Count I, it argues that the Court should find Count I moot as a matter of judicial prudence. See MTD Reply at 3, 9-10.
Office of the State Superintendent of Education, Dist. of Columbia Formal State Complaint Policy & Procedures (revised Nov. 2009).
Reference
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