Coventry Pub. Sch. v. Rachel J.

• Decision Date: 28 September 2012
• Docket Number: C.A. No. 11–259–M.
• Citation: 893 F.Supp.2d 322
• Parties: COVENTRY PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Plaintiff, v. RACHEL J. and William J., individually and on behalf of WJ, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Rhode Island

893 F.Supp.2d 322

COVENTRY PUBLIC SCHOOLS, Plaintiff,

v.RACHEL J. and William J., individually and on behalf of WJ, Defendants.

C.A. No. 11–259–M.

United States District Court, D. Rhode Island.

Sept. 28, 2012.

David A. Kane, Stephen Adams, Taylor Duane Barton & Gilman, LLP, Providence, RI, for Plaintiff.

Amy R. Tabor, Hardy, Tabor & Chudacoff, Pawtucket, RI, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM AND ORDER

JOHN J. McCONNELL, JR., District Judge.

This matter is before the Court on cross-motions for summary judgment (ECF Nos. 16 and 19) that arise from the decision (“Decision”) of an Impartial Due Process Hearing Officer (“Hearing Officer”) (ECF No. 1–1) who ruled that the parents' (“Parents”) unilateral placement of their child (“Billy” ¹) in the F.L. Chamberlain School (“Chamberlain School”), an out-of-state therapeutic residential school in Middleboro, Massachusetts, was necessary to afford him a free appropriate public education (“FAPE”) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq. (“IDEA” or the “Act”). In his Decision, the Hearing Officer required that Coventry Public Schools (“Coventry”) reimburse Billy's Parents for the cost of placing him at the Chamberlain School and required Coventry to continue funding his education there.

Upon review of the voluminous record, including transcripts, extensive briefing, and lengthy oral arguments, this Court AFFIRMS the Hearing Officer's Decision for the reasons set forth below.²

I. FACTS

Billy has struggled since his birth in August of 1995 with a variety of attentional, emotional, and behavioral disabilities such that he is entitled to benefits under IDEA.³ He has had an Individualized Education Plan (“IEP”) provided under the Act since he started kindergarten at five years old. These disabilities have severely disrupted Billy's ability to function in school in a number of educational settings and have impeded his academic progress and essential academic skills. In addition to his current enrollment at the Chamberlain School, Billy's disabilities have required that he be placed in two out-of-district placements prior to reaching the sixth grade.

A. ACADEMIC HISTORY

Billy's disabilities were evident from the very start of his life. In 1996 when Billy was only a year old, his mother was forced to seek help for his behavioral disabilities from neurologists. (Hearing Tr. 9–2–10 at 67–68); ⁴see also Appendix to Defendants' Motion for Summary Judgment, Tab # 1 (“Def. App. # 1”). Medication was prescribed but it was not effective. (Hearing Tr. 9–2–10 at 68.) A day care he attended initially requested that he only attend part-time due to his disruptive behavior. Id. at 72. This behavior became so extreme that the day care asked his Parents to remove him from the day care center entirely. Id. at 78–79.

Billy's Parents then sought the assistance of Dr. Rowland Barrett and Dr. Jeffrey Hunt of Bradley Hospital in East Providence, Rhode Island. (“Bradley Hospital”). Id. at 74–78. Dr. Barrett was the Chief Psychologist for Bradley Hospital and the Director of the Center for Autism and Developmental Disabilities and an Associate Professor at Brown University School of Medicine. (Hearing Tr. 11–18–10 at 58.) Dr. Hunt was the Director of the Adolescent Program at Bradley Hospital. Bradley Hospital is the nation's first psychiatric hospital devoted exclusively to children and adolescents. Id. at 59. According to its website, Bradley Hospital has “established itself as the national center for training and research in child and adolescent psychiatry.” Bradley Hospital (Sept. 28, 2012), http:// www. bradley hospital. org.

In 1999 when he was three years old, Warwick Public Schools had Billy evaluated by Memorial Hospital of Rhode Island who determined that he had social, emotional, organizational, and behavioral needs. Memorial advised that he would be best served by a placement outside of the school system with Child, Inc. for a full-day Pre–K Program with resources for his behavioral issues. (Def. App. # 2 at 8.) (“[Billy] has recently been placed in a new preschool setting at Child, Incorporated, which appears to be a more appropriate placement given his significant behavioral difficulties at school.”) Warwick's own educational assessment found Billy to be inattentive, disobedient, emotional, and hyperactive. Id. at 9. The report states:

Behaviorally, [Billy] presents as a very challenging child with a constellation of difficult behaviors. We commend [Billy's mother] for securing counseling services, as it will be critical to address these behaviors in the context of a therapeutic setting to insure that they do not escalate further.

Id. at 9.

Billy and his family then moved to the Town of Coventry in 2001. Billy's IEP for first grade stated that Billy “needs a behavioral management plan.” (ECF No. 1–1 at 8.) His psychological evaluation (Def. App. # 3), his educational evaluation (Def. App. # 4), and Coventry's Team Summary and Recommendations (Def. App. # 5) all documented that Billy needed a “positive behavioral management system.” (Def. App. # 4 at 2).

Billy's family moved after first grade and Billy transferred to the Town of Gloucester schools (“Gloucester”) for second and third grades. Billy's Gloucester IEP described his needs as “behavioral.” His setting was a self-contained classroom with a special education teacher. (ECF No. 1–1 at 9.) Billy failed third grade and was not promoted to fourth grade. (Def. App. # 6.) Billy was required to repeat third grade for the 2004–05 school year.

Gloucester referred Billy to the private Emma Pendleton Bradley Day School (“Bradley School”) at Bradley Hospital for fourth grade. (Def. App. # 8.) This was the second time a school system determined that Billy required an out-of-district school placement. His IEP in August 2005 recommended that he stay at this placement and highlighted his non-compliant behaviors. (Def. App. # 9 at 3.) In addition to a self-contained classroom with a special education teacher, a therapist was assigned to Billy's home for thirty sessions to devise behavior management strategies. (ECF No. 1–1 at 10.) His classroom utilized a behavioral program. (Def. App. # 9 at 3.)

Psychologists at Bradley Hospital evaluated Billy in May of 2006. The team found that his “performance on his assessment was likely negatively impacted by these attentional and behavior difficulties.” (Def. App. # 10 at 4.) Billy was discharged from Bradley School in August of 2006. His discharge summary stated that “[w]ith a consistently administered reinforcement-based behavior management plan, he slowly began to improve.” (Def. App. # 12 at 1.)

Billy returned to Coventry schools in the fall of 2006 to begin fifth grade in a self-contained therapeutic classroom with a special education teacher and one-on-one services. (ECF No. 1–1 at 11.) In some core subjects, Billy did not perform well. For example, he received no grade at all for the second or third trimesters in science and received no grade for all three trimesters in social science. It appears from his report card he either did not attend, or did not receive any grade for Music, Art, or Health. He obtained passing grades in Reading, Writing and Math, but his NECAP ⁵ test scores showed that he was substantially below proficiency—the lowest possible category—in Reading and Math. (Def. App. # 13.)

In the fall of 2007, Billy entered sixth grade. The social worker at Billy's school stated that “[a]t the elementary level he was in a Behavioral Self-contained class, which was his recommended placement for academic 2007–08. His class this year numbered fewer than ten students, and featured extremely consistent behavior management, with clear expectations and a level system that was applied with noteworthy consistency.” (Def. App. # 22.) Despite all of that effort, the teachers found that: “[o]ur concerns for [Billy] center on his conduct, and most importantly on the lack of progress we have seen in any improvement in his conduct.” Id. (Emphasis added).

The Special Education case manager for Billy stated:

Academics: [Billy] is a very capable student. His behaviors continually get in the way of his academic work. When his behaviors are controlled he is more than capable of work that is close to his grade level. Because of his behaviors he has missed some essential skills, which have set him back. When included in the regular academic setting, it is a challenge to keep him appropriately engaged. When the students are participating in group activities, [Billy] will try to take charge of the group which frustrates his peers.”

(Def. App. # 21) (Emphasis added).

On December 19, 2007, Coventry convened an IEP Team and prepared a new IEP for Billy. (Def. App. # 17.) Despite a long history of behavior issues impeding his academic progress, Billy's IEP for sixth grade contained no goals, objectives, or statements of present levels of performance for social, emotional, or behavioral functioning. It contained only four goals and those were for basic academics only—reading (2), writing, and math. Id. The absence of social, emotional, and behavioral goals was clearly not the result of any dramatic improvement in Billy's social emotional or behavioral functioning. The IEP itself acknowledged that he needed a consistent, structured behavior system with well-understood consequences. Id. at 9. Coventry Special Education Director Sue Lyons admitted that the IEP should have contained behavioral and social skills goals. She said “if I wrote that IEP ... and I knew about some of his needs, would I include a behavioral goal and a social skills goal? Yes, I would.” (Hearing Tr. 1–25–11, at 109.)

Despite the sixth grade teachers' many and varied efforts to enable Billy to make any progress, the evidence appears to show the lack of progress despite these efforts. In the spring of 2008, his teacher's note states that “Behavior is a major concern at this time.” (Def. App. # 19.) At the...