Amann v. Town of Stow

• Decision Date: 29 April 1993
• Docket Number: No. 92-2157,92-2157
• Citation: 991 F.2d 929
• Parties: 82 Ed. Law Rep. 372, 1 A.D.D. 851 Richard AMANN, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. TOWN OF STOW, et al., Defendants, Appellee.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 929

991 F.2d 929

82 Ed. Law Rep. 372, 1 A.D.D. 851

Richard AMANN, et al., Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. TOWN OF STOW, et al., Defendants, Appellee.

No. 92-2157.

United States Court of Appeals First Circuit.

Submitted Jan. 25, 1993.

Decided April 29, 1993.

Richard Amann on brief pro se.

Scott Harshbarger, Atty. Gen., and Beth D. Levi, Asst. Atty. Gen., Boston, MA, on brief for appellee Com. of Massachusetts.

Kevin Hensley and Needham and Warren, Boston, MA, on brief, for appellee Town of Stow.

Maynard M. Kirpalani, Christine Hasiotis and Parker, Coulter, Daley & White, Boston, MA, on brief, for appellee Stow School System.

Before TORRUELLA, CYR and STAHL, Circuit Judges.

PER CURIAM.

Appellant Christopher Amann is a child with learning disabilities who lives in Stow, Massachusetts. Appellant Richard Amann is Christopher's father. Christopher began to attend public school in Stow in 1983. Because he suffered from learning disabilities, the Town was obligated under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq., to produce an "individualized education program" (IEP) for him, and to review and update the IEP annually. See generally Amann v. Stow School System, 982 F.2d 644, 646-47 (1st Cir.1992) (per curiam) (describing Town's obligations under IDEA). The Town did so until 1987, when Christopher's parents withdrew him from the Stow school system and placed him in a private school.

In 1990, at the request of Christopher's parents, Stow came up with a new IEP that called for Christopher to return to the Stow public schools. The Amanns rejected this IEP and challenged its adequacy in a hearing before the Massachusetts Bureau of Special Education Appeals (BSEA). See 20 U.S.C. § 1415(b)(2) (requiring administrative "due process hearing" of complaints about IEPs). The BSEA hearing officer decided that Stow's proposed IEP was legally adequate.

Section 1415(e)(2) of the IDEA authorizes parties aggrieved by agency decisions concerning the adequacy of an IEP to bring a civil action in either state or federal court, seeking "such relief as the court determines is appropriate." The Amanns challenged the BSEA's procedures and findings in the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts. The district court affirmed the validity of the IEP, and we did the same on appeal. Amann v. Stow School System, 982 F.2d at 649-53.

As was its duty under the IDEA, see 20 U.S.C. § 1414(a)(5) (requiring annual review and, if appropriate, revision of IEP), Stow prepared a new educational plan to cover the period March 1991-March 1992. This IEP, like its predecessor, called for Christopher to attend public schools in Stow. The Amanns rejected this IEP, too, and again sought review before the BSEA. In a decision dated September 9, 1991, the BSEA hearing officer ruled that Stow's 1991-1992 IEP was adequate. On May 21, 1992, the Amanns filed this action in the district court. The district court dismissed the complaint as untimely. This appeal followed. We affirm.

I

The IDEA, like many federal statutes, does not set a time limit for lawsuits brought under its terms. "In such situations we do not ordinarily assume that Congress intended that there be no time limit on actions at all; rather, our task is to 'borrow' the most suitable statute or other rule of timeliness from some other source. We have generally concluded that Congress intended that the courts apply the most closely analogous statute of limitations under state law," DelCostello v. International Brotherhood of Teamsters, 462 U.S. 151, 158, 103 S.Ct. 2281, 2287, 76 L.Ed.2d 476 (1983), provided that "it is not inconsistent with federal law or policy to do so." Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. 261, 266-67, 105 S.Ct. 1938, 1942, 85 L.Ed.2d 254 (1985).

The district court, relying on Judge Keeton's decision in Gertel v. School Committee of Brookline School District, 783 F.Supp. 701 (D.Mass.1992), "borrowed" the thirty-day limitations period that governs civil actions seeking judicial review of state agency decisions under the Massachusetts Administrative Procedure Act, M.G.L. c. 30A, § 14. Because the Amanns did not sue until eight months after the BSEA decision, the district court properly dismissed their claim unless the court's choice of the thirty-day limitation period was somehow incorrect, or its application of the time bar under the circumstances of this case was somehow inappropriate.

II

Except to suggest that the Gertel decision "set an improper precedent," the appellants do not seriously contest the district court's choice of a limitations period. The appropriate limitations period for IDEA actions, however, is a question of first impression in this circuit, and the issue has not elsewhere generated a harmonious judicial response. Several courts, like the district court here, have applied the short (generally 30-day) limitations periods found in state administrative procedure acts, ruling both that state administrative procedure laws are analogous to Section 1415(e)(2), and that their relatively brief limitations periods are consistent with the IDEA's goal of prompt resolution of disputes over the educational placement of learning-disabled children. Spiegler v. District of Columbia, 866 F.2d 461 (D.C.Cir.1989); Adler v. Education Department of New York, 760 F.2d 454 (2d Cir.1985); Department of Education v. Carl D., 695 F.2d 1154 (9th Cir.1983); Gertel, supra; Bow School District v. Quentin W., 750 F.Supp. 546 (D.N.H.1990). Other courts, though they by and large concede that state administrative procedure laws provide the closest available analogue to Section 1415(e)(2), but see Tokarcik v. Forest Hills School District, 665 F.2d 443 (3d Cir.1981), reason that short limitations periods are nevertheless too inconsistent with the IDEA's "goal of parental involvement" to allow their application to actions under the IDEA. See Schimmel v. Spillane, 819 F.2d 477 (4th Cir.1987); Scokin v. Texas, 723 F.2d 432 (5th Cir.1984). These courts have instead borrowed less analogous, but longer--and in the courts' view, more compatible--state limitations periods, such as those applicable to tort claims, see Scokin, 723 F.2d at 438 (two years); Tokarcik, 665 F.2d at 454 (two years), or to actions for services rendered but not paid for. Janzen v. Knox County Board of Education, 790 F.2d 484, 489 (6th Cir.1986) (three years).

We conclude that the district court correctly borrowed Massachusetts' thirty-day limitations period for actions under its Administrative Procedure Act. Since the arguments on both sides have been well-rehearsed in the cases cited--and since the appellants have offered only a perfunctory challenge to the district court's choice--we will attempt to state our reasons briefly.

The Massachusetts Administrative Procedure Act (APA) contains the "most analogous" state law cause of action to the civil action authorized by Section 1415(e)(2). Like the Massachusetts courts operating under M.G.L. c. 30A, § 14, courts reviewing agency decisions under the IDEA will rely primarily on the administrative record, see Burlington v. Department of Education, 736 F.2d 773, 790 (1st Cir.1984) ("Burlington II "), and will scrutinize the agency action for procedural regularity and substantive validity, but will not "impos[e] their view of preferable ... methods" on the state agency. Board of Education v. Rowley, 458 U.S. 176, 207, 102 S.Ct. 3034, 3051, 73 L.Ed.2d 690 (1982); cf. M.G.L. c. 30A § 14(7)(g) (requiring court to respect agency decision unless arbitrary or capricious, an abuse of discretion, or otherwise not in accordance with law). Thus, the "character of the hearing" under Section 1415(e)(2), like that of the hearing conducted under the Massachusetts statute, is essentially "one of review." Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 791.

The short limitations period of the Massachusetts APA is fully consistent with one goal of the IDEA: the quick disposition of disputes about a handicapped child's educational placement. "[S]peedy resolutions to the IEP and placement disputes that characterize § 1415(e)(2) actions are necessary for such resolutions to serve any substantively useful purposes," Bow School District v. Quentin W., 750 F.Supp. at 550, because "[c]hildren develop quickly and their needs often change substantially from year to year." Id. See also Burlington II, 736 F.2d at 798 ("Delay in remedial teaching is ... likely to be highly injurious to [learning disabled] children"). The legislative history, statutory terms, and regulatory framework of the IDEA all emphasize promptness as an indispensable element of the statutory scheme. See generally Spiegler, 866 F.2d 461, 466-67; Adler, 760 F.2d at 459-60; Bow School District, 750 F.Supp. at 550-51.

It is true that the thirty-day limitations period may to some extent frustrate a competing goal: parental involvement in enforcing the IDEA's requirements. But the imposition of any statute of limitations will to some extent favor "policies of repose" over "substantive policies of enforcement," Wilson v. Garcia, 471 U.S. at 271, 105 S.Ct. at 1944, and this fact alone is not a sufficient reason for rejecting the shorter limitations period of a closely analogous statute. "Were it otherwise, a federal court should always prefer a longer statute of limitations over an alternative, but shorter, period, a type of approach [the Supreme Court has] rejected before." Burnett v. Grattan, 468 U.S. 42, 58, 104 S.Ct. 2924, 2934, 82 L.Ed.2d 36 (1984) (Rehnquist, J., dissenting).

The potentially harsh effects of a short limitations period, moreover, are mitigated in this context by three factors which, taken together, so narrow any "inconsistency" with the goal of parental involvement as to permit application of the most analogous state law. Cf. Occidental Life Insurance Co. v. EEOC, 432 U.S. 355, 97 S.Ct. 2447, 53 L.Ed.2d 402 (1977) (finding preclusive inconsistency where application of state statute of...