Connecticut v. Spellings

• Decision Date: 28 April 2008
• Docket Number: No. 3:05CV1330(MRK).,3:05CV1330(MRK).
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Connecticut
• Parties: State of CONNECTICUT, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Margaret SPELLINGS, Secretary of Education, Defendant.

549 F.Supp.2d 161

State of CONNECTICUT, et al., Plaintiffs, v. Margaret SPELLINGS, Secretary of Education, Defendant.

No. 3:05CV1330(MRK).

United States District Court, D. Connecticut.

April 28, 2008.

Clare E. Kindall, Ralph E. Urban, Richard Blumenthal, Attorney General's Office, Hartford, CT, for Plaintiffs.

Elizabeth Goitein, Heather R. Phillips, Marcia Berman, Samuel C. Kaplan, Washington, DC, John B. Hughes, U.S. Attorney's Office, New Haven, CT, for Defendant.

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION

MARK R. KRAVITZ, District Judge.

Pending before the. Court are a Motion for Judgment on the Administrative Record [doc. # 133] filed by Plaintiffs, the State of Connecticut and its General Assembly (collectively, the "State"), a Cross-Motion for Judgment on the Record [doc. # 145] filed by Defendant, Margaret Spellings, Secretary of Education (the "Secretary"), and a Cross-Motion for Judgment on the Record and Opposition to Plaintiffs Motion for Judgment on the Record [doc. # 142] filed by Intervenor-Plaintiff, Connecticut State Conference of the NAACP (the "NAACP"). For the reasons explained below, the Court denies the State's Motion [doc. # 133], grants the Secretary's Cross-Motion [doc. # 145], and grants the NAACP's Cross-Motion [doc. # 142].

I.

The dispute in this case arises under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001, 20 U.S.C. §§ 6301-7941 (2006) (the "Act"). The facts underlying this dispute are set forth in greater detail in this Court's previous ruling on the Secretary's Motion to Dismiss [doc. # 18] ("Motion to Dismiss Ruling" [doc. # 87]), familiarity with which is assumed. See Connecticut v. Spellings, 453 F.Supp.2d 459 (D.Conn. 2006). In its Motion to Dismiss Ruling, the Court addressed "only the threshold issues relating to its jurisdiction and authority to consider the various claims raised by the State," id. at 465, and dismissed the first three of the State's four counts of its Second Amended Complaint [doc. # 81] because the Court concluded that it lacked jurisdiction over them. See id. at 465, 491, 494, 501; see also Arizona State Dep't of Educ. v. US. Dep't of Educ., No. CV061719PHXDGC, 2007 WL 433581, at *7 (D.Ariz. Feb.6, 2007) ("This Court lacks subject matter jurisdiction over this pre-enforcement declaratory judgment action regarding the meaning of § 6316(b)(2)(B).").¹ The Court further declined to address the claims asserted in the State's fourth count, which appealed the Secretary's denials of Connecticut's two proposed plan amendments regarding the timing and method of assessment of two groups of students—special education and Limited English Proficiency ("LEP") students. See Spellings, 453 F.Supp.2d at 464.² The Court did so because it "conclude[d] that any consideration of the merits of either party's statutory arguments would require further development of the record." Id. at 465; see also id. at 501-02.³

Following issuance of the Motion to Dismiss Ruling, on July 12, 2007, the Secretary submitted an Amended Certified Administrative Record ("A.C.A.R.") [doc. # 132]. Soon after, the State, the Secretary and the NAACP filed their motions for judgment on the administrative record on Count IV.

A. Relevant Requirements of the No Child Left Behind Act

In 2001, pursuant to its power under the Spending Clause of the United States Constitution, Art. I, § 8, cl. 1, Congress passed the No Child Left Behind Act, the overriding goal of which, the parties agree, is to ensure high-quality education for all our Nation's children. See 20 U.S.C. § 6301. Congress provided that in return for federal educational funds under the Act, States must adhere to a comprehensive set of educational assessments and accountability measures. See Spellings, 453 F.Supp.2d at 469-71 (discussing the Act's requirements in detail). To be eligible for funding under the Act, a State must submit to the Secretary a plan developed by the state educational agency. See 20 U.S.C. § 6311(a). Each state plan consists of three primary elements: (1) the adoption of challenging academic content standards and student achievement standards that will be used by the State, its local educational agencies, and its schools, see 20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(1)(A); (2) the development and implementation of a single, statewide accountability system that will be effective in ensuring adequate yearly progress in achieving objectives for educational improvement, see 20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(2)(A); and (3) the implementation of high-quality, yearly student academic assessments that will include, at a minimum, academic assessments in mathematics, reading or language arts, and science, see 20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(3)(A). See Spellings, 453 F.Supp.2d at 469.

As is relevant to the pending motions, the Act states in regard to the first requirement that "[t]he academic standards ... shall be the same academic standards that the State applies to all schools and children in the State." 20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(1)(B). For the second requirement, the Act provides that States must define annual yearly progress in a manner that "applies the same high standards of academic achievement to all ... students in the State; ... is statistically valid and reliable; [and] includes separate measurable annual objectives for continuous and substantial improvement for ... the achievement of ... students with disabilities [and] students with limited English proficiency." 20 U.S.C. §§ 6311(b)(2)(C)(i), (ii), (v)(II)(cc), (v)(II)(dd). With respect to the third plan requirement, the Act tells States that "the same academic assessments [must be] used to measure the achievement of all children." 20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(3)(C)(i)-(iii). In assessing the academic progress of students, the Act reiterates that a state must provide for "the participation in such assessments of all students." 20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(3)(C)(ix)(I). The Act also requires States to provide for "the reasonable adaptations and accommodations for students with disabilities ... necessary to measure the academic achievement of such students relative to ... State student academic achievement standards," 20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(3)(C)(ix)(II), and "the inclusion of [LEP] students, who shall be assessed in a valid and reliable manner and provided reasonable accommodations on assessments administered ... under this paragraph...." 20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(3)(C)(ix)(III).⁴ LEP students must be tested in English after attending schools in the United States for three years, though case-by-case exceptions can be made. See 20 U.S.C. § 6311(b)(3)(C)(x).

The Act gives the Secretary "the authority to disapprove a State plan for not meeting the requirements" of the Act, but adds that she "shall not have the authority to require a State, as a condition of approval of the State plan, to include in, or delete from, such plan one or more specific elements of the State's academic content standards or to use specific academic assessment instruments or items." 20 U.S.C. § 6311(e)(1)(F). The Act also anticipates the possibility that a State may wish to modify its plan after initial approval. In such cases, the Act provides that "[i]f significant changes are made to a State's plan, such as the adoption of ... new academic assessments ... such information shall be submitted to the Secretary." 20 U.S.C. § 6311(f)(2); see Spellings, 453 F.Supp.2d at 472.

States receiving funding under the Act are required to use those funds to supplement, and not supplant, funding from nonfederal sources used to educate children. See 20 U.S.C. § 6321(b)(1). The so-called "Unfunded Mandates Provision" further states,

Nothing in this [Act] shall be construed to authorize an officer or employee of the Federal Government to mandate, direct, or control a State, local educational agency, or school's curriculum, program of instruction, or allocation of State or local resources, or mandate a State or any subdivision thereof to spend any funds or incur any costs not paid for under this chapter.

20 U.S.C. § 7907(a).

B. Relevant Regulations Under the Act

Congress empowered the Secretary to "issue such regulations as are necessary to reasonably ensure that there is compliance" with the Act's provisions. See 20 U.S.C. § 6571. On July 5, 2002, within the six-month time-period mandated by 20 U.S.C. § 6578, the former Secretary of Education, Rod Paige, issued final regulations implementing the Act. See Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged, 67 Fed.Reg. 45038, 45041-42 (July 5, 2002); 34 C.F.R. §§ 200.2, 200.6. These regulations emphasize that the Act requires States to test special education students (a specific subset of "students with disabilities") and LEP students at grade-level standards; in other words, the regulations do not permit out-of-level testing for these students.⁵ See 67 Fed.Reg. at 45038, 45040-42; 34 C.F.R. §§ 200.2(b), 200.6(a)(1).

On August 6, 2002, Secretary Paige then proposed regulations that would permit the use of alternate assessments for students with the "most significant cognitive disabilities." Improving the Academic Achievement of the Disadvantaged, 67 Fed.Reg. 50986, 50987 (Aug. 6, 2002). He stated that "alternate assessments are an appropriate way to measure the progress of only that very limited portion of students with the most significant cognitive disabilities who will never be able to demonstrate progress on grade level academic achievement standards even if provided the very best possible education" and that these alternate assessments would not apply to "more than 0.5 percent of all students in the grades assessed." Id. at 50987, 51005. In the final regulations issued on December 2, 2002, however, the Secretary did not adopt the alternate assessment proposal. Rather, the regulations required that the "same grade level academic content and achievement standards" be applied to "alternate assessments," but Secretary Paige added that he would "propose an exception to this policy for a small group of students with disabilities." Improving the...