E.D. v. Colonial Sch. Dist.
| Decision Date | 31 March 2017 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL ACTION NO. 09-4837 |
| Parties | E.D., by and through her parents, T.D. and C.D., and T.D. and C.D., individually v. COLONIAL SCHOOL DISTRICT |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Presently before the Court is Defendant Colonial School District's Motion for Judgment On the Administrative Record And For Summary Judgment (ECF No. 16), and Plaintiffs E.D., T.D., and C.D.'s Motion for Summary Judgment On The Supplemented Administrative Record On Count I Of The Complaint, And Partial Summary Judgment On The Issue Of Liability On Counts II And III Of The Complaint (ECF No. 17). For the following reasons, Defendant's Motion will be granted, and Plaintiffs' Motion will be denied.
In this lawsuit, T.D. and C.D., individually, and on behalf of their daughter, E.D., allege violations of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400, et seq. ("IDEA") and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 20 U.S.C. § 794(a) ("Rehabilitation Act" or "Section 504"). Plaintiffs contend that Defendant Colonial School District denied Plaintiff E.D., who suffers from learning disabilities, a free appropriate public education ("FAPE") during her Kindergarten and First Grade school years. Plaintiffs unsuccessfully asserted these claims at the administrative level. On August 29, 2009, after a due process hearing that spanned six sessions, a Pennsylvania Special Education Hearing Officer concluded that Plaintiffs were not entitled to tuition reimbursement and compensatory education. In this action, Plaintiffs seek reversal of the Hearing Officer's determination. Plaintiffs also assert claims for retaliation and interference under Section 504. The parties now each move for summary judgment.
E.D. is a minor who resides with her parents, T.D. and C.D., in the Colonial School District. (Compl. ¶ 5, ECF No. 1.) For the school year of 2006-07, following several years of nursery school, E.D. enrolled in Plymouth Elementary School ("Plymouth"), which is under Defendant's supervision. At the time, E.D. was three months past her fifth birthday. (Hr'g Dec. 13, Pl.'s Mot. Ex. 1, ECF No. 17.) She was one of the younger members of the class. (Id. at 2.)
Fewer than two months into the 2006-07 school year, E.D.'s kindergarten teacher noticed that E.D. was "having a lot of difficulty keeping up with the curriculum." (Statement of Concern, ECF No. 18-2 at 17.) In a Statement of Concern dated October 20, 2006, the teacher wrote that "[E.D.] is unable to write her name or other letters of the alphabet." (Id.) In addition, her teacher noted that E.D. seemed "very immature in the way she speaks/interacts with other children." (Id.)
E.D.'s parents were aware that their daughter was having trouble. E.D.'s teacher noted that E.D.'s mother, T.D., "realized that [E.D.] cannot do things that other children her age are doing," such as "write [her] name, complete [homework] assignments, draw recognizable pictures, [and] write letters of the alphabet." (Id. at 44.) T.D. was concerned because E.D. had been enrolled in preschool prior to beginning kindergarten. (Id.) The teacher recommended that E.D.'s progress be monitored, that she be given extra practice in handwriting, and that E.D. should receive personalized help during "Kid Writing."1 E.D. was referred to the StudentSupport Team ("SST")2 in order to determine how best to proceed.
Pursuant to the referral, the SST met with T.D. and C.D. on November 9, 2006. (SST Report, ECF No. 18-2 at 19.) The SST evaluated E.D.'s progress in several areas. In discussing her written expression ability, the SST noted that she was "not yet drawing recognizable pictures," but was able to "write one beginning letter for each word in her story" when her teacher worked with her one-on-one. (Id. at 20.) E.D.'s teacher further noted that she had been devoting extra attention to E.D.'s handwriting in the hope of improving her legibility. (Id. at 21.)
The SST discussed E.D.'s poor performance in mathematics, noting that she was having difficulty with number writing, simple addition and subtraction, and number patterns. (Id.) The SST pointed to speech and language issues, including difficulty articulating speech sounds, difficulty understanding conversations, and unusual voice quality. (Id.) Finally, the SST noted that E.D. had difficulty paying attention and staying on task. (Id. at 22.)
In prescribing future action, the SST suggested that Kid Writing improvement should be E.D.'s primary goal. (Id. at 14-15.) The SST recommended that E.D. receive an "OT (occupational therapy) screening" and a "speech screening," and that ongoing interventions continue. (Id. at 15.) The SST proposed a follow-up meeting at the end of March 2007. (Id.)
In January 2007, Defendant conducted a speech and language evaluation of E.D. The evaluation confirmed that E.D. suffered from a speech and language impairment that affected both her receptive and expressive language skills, and placed her significantly below her peers. (Hr'g Dec. 3, ¶ 4.) This diagnosis led Defendant to conclude that E.D. was eligible forsupplemental educational services under the IDEA. (Id.) Further assessment in February 2007 indicated that E.D. was scoring well below average on several speech and language related tests. (First IEP, ECF No. 18-1 at 1.)
In March 2007, Defendant prepared an Individualized Education Program3 (IEP) to address E.D.'s speech/language disability ("First IEP"), and scheduled it for implementation on March 14, 2007. The IEP was intended to last almost a full calendar year, and expire on March 7, 2008. The IEP noted that E.D.'s "functional performance appears to be age-appropriate," but that her speech and language difficulties were impacting her classroom performance. (Id. at 4-5.) The IEP also noted that, according to her recent report card, E.D. was "proficient in reading," while her math skills ranged from "below basic" to proficient. (Id. at 4.)
The First IEP prescribed several program modifications designed to accommodate E.D.'s needs. First, E.D. was to receive six monthly sessions of small group instruction, each lasting thirty minutes. Second, E.D.'s classroom teacher and speech therapist were to engage in "collaboration" once a month. Third, the First IEP recommended that the classroom teacher repeat directions, break directions into smaller steps, use graphic cues, and give verbal praise and reinforcement to encourage E.D.'s progression in the classroom. (Id. at 9.)
The First IEP determined that E.D. was not eligible for an Extended School Year program ("ESY"), because she was "newly enrolled in speech and language support services." (Id.) The First IEP alluded to a lack of data as a factor in making this determination, saying that data collected in the future would be used to determine her eligibility for ESY programming. (Id.) The IEP team determined that ESY was not necessary to provide E.D. with a FAPE asguaranteed by the IDEA. (Id. at 9-10.)
E.D. was more extensively evaluated by the SST over the ensuing months, and a report was prepared on August 7, 2007.4 (SST Evaluation, ECF No. 18-1 at 14.) This report was substantially more detailed than the March 2007 report. The report was based on conversations with E.D.'s teacher and parents, input from various specialists who had worked with E.D., and observation of E.D. in the context of the classroom environment. (Id. at 20-21.) The report first noted that E.D.'s behavior, and both her teacher's and parents' description of that behavior, strongly suggested that E.D. suffered from Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). (Id. at 23.) The report analyzed various tests, which had been administered to E.D. over the course of the prior months, and discussed progress that had resulted from the speech and language accommodations, which had been incorporated into E.D.'s curriculum pursuant to the First IEP. The report noted the scant progress that E.D. had made in math over the course of the year. (Id. at 7.) In addition, the report declared E.D. to be "not proficient" in reading and writing. (Id.) The report concluded that E.D. was in need of specially designed instruction due to her speech and language disability. (Id.) Notably, the report did not find that E.D. was eligible for additional disability categories. (Id.)
E.D. made some progress by the end of the 2006-07 school year. In response to being asked to list her daughter's strengths, E.D.'s mother noted on a Parental Input Form that E.D. "has come a long way since September, is able to write her name and read some sight words," and that she "[k]nows her numbers."5 (Hr'g Dec. 6, ¶ 24; Parental Input Form, ECF No. 18-1 at13.) E.D.'s mother, in the same document, noted her daughter's "lack of progression compared to children her age." (Id.) E.D.'s Kindergarten report card, which spotlighted some of E.D.'s progress, indicated that E.D. was having difficulty in a number of academic areas. (Kindergarten Report Card, ECF No. 18-2 at 10-11.) Her end-of-year assessments indicated that E.D. was "not proficient" in reading, with her Rigby score of 0 unchanged from her mid-year and beginning of year assessments. (SST Evaluation 16.) E.D.'s Kindergarten teacher testified at the due process hearing that E.D. made progress during the Kindergarten year in the areas of story retelling and name writing, recognizing high frequency words in print, producing beginning sounds in words, recognizing rhyme, recognizing numbers using pictures, and identifying the concepts of time. (Hr'g Tr. 649-51; see also Hr'g Dec. 6.) E.D.'s teacher also testified that E.D.'s reading and writing skills showed progress. (Hr'g Tr. 661, 659.)
E.D.'s struggles continued during the 2007-08 school year. She had difficulty adapting to the academic curriculum and social pressures of first grade. A...
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