Disability Rights Wi v. Wi Dept Public Inst

• Decision Date: 13 September 2006
• Docket Number: No. 05-4171.,05-4171.
• Citation: 463 F.3d 719
• Parties: DISABILITY RIGHTS WISCONSIN, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STATE OF WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION and Elizabeth Burmaster, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, in her official capacity, Defendants-Appellees.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Seventh Circuit

463 F.3d 719

DISABILITY RIGHTS WISCONSIN, INC., Plaintiff-Appellant, v. STATE OF WISCONSIN DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INSTRUCTION and Elizabeth Burmaster, State Superintendent of Public Instruction, in her official capacity, Defendants-Appellees.

No. 05-4171.

United States Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit.

Argued May 2, 2006.

Decided September 13, 2006.

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Jeffrey Spitzer-Resnick (argued), Wisconsin Coalition for Advocacy, Madison, WI, for Plaintiff-Appellant.

Thomas C. Bellavia (argued), Office of the Attorney General, Wisconsin Department of Justice, Madison, WI, for Defendants-Appellees.

Richard A. Schneider, King & Spalding, Atlanta, GA, for Amicus Curiae, National Disability Rights Network.

Steven Y. Winnick, Holland & Knight, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae, National Association of State Directors of Special Education.

Before CUDAHY, RIPPLE, and WOOD, Circuit Judges.

CUDAHY, Circuit Judge.

The specific issue in this appeal is whether and to what extent the State of Wisconsin Department of Public Instruction (DPI) must disclose records uncovered in its investigation into the use of "time out" or seclusion rooms for disciplining students at the Abraham Lincoln Elementary School (Lincoln) in Monroe, Wisconsin, to Disability Rights Wisconsin, Inc. (DRW)¹ — the agency authorized to investigate alleged incidents of abuse or neglect of people with mental or physical disabilities in the state. The broader issue concerns the scope of state protection and advocacy agencies' rights to records when the agencies have reason to believe that the citizens they are charged with protecting are being abused or neglected. DRW brought suit in federal court seeking declaratory and injunctive relief to compel DPI to turn over its records. The district court denied DRW's motion, reasoning that the relevant statutes require DRW to know the names of students who may have been placed in the seclusion rooms or at least try to obtain permission from their legal representatives to access the records. The district court also concluded that DRW failed to show that it had exhausted the available administrative remedies — an issue meriting no further consideration since DPI expressly abandoned it at oral argument. We vacate the judgment and remand the case for further proceedings.

I. Background

DRW is a nonprofit stock corporation designated by the state of Wisconsin to serve as its protection and advocacy agency (P&A agency), as required under federal law. WIS. STAT. § 51.62 (2006). Wisconsin trusts that DRW, in this capacity, will protect individuals with disabilities or mental illness and be an advocate on their behalf. The three federal statutes requiring that the states establish P&A agencies and governing their operations are the Developmental Disabilities and Bill of Rights Act (the DD Act), the Protection and Advocacy for Mentally Ill Individuals Act of 1986 (the PAIMI Act)² and the Protection and Advocacy of Individual Rights Act (the PAIR Act) — known collectively as the federal protection and advocacy statutes or the federal P&A statutes. DD Act, 42 U.S.C. §§ 15001-115 (2006); PAIMI Act, 42 U.S.C. § 10801-851 (2006); PAIR Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794e (2006).

The federal P&A statutes, which Congress enacted after concluding that state systems for protecting the rights of individuals with disabilities varied widely and were in many cases inadequate, condition federal funding for each state on the establishment of an effective protection and advocacy system for individuals with mental illness or physical disabilities. 42 U.S.C. §§ 15001, 15041, 15043; 42 U.S.C. §§ 10801(a)(1)-(4), 10803, 10805; 29 U.S.C. §§ 794e(a)(1); 794(e)(f).

Lincoln has two seclusion rooms that it has in the past used as part of its special education program to place students who had become unruly on "time-outs" if their individual education plans (IEPs) allowed it. (R., Jt. Stipulated Findings of Fact ¶¶ 4-5.) The general idea behind seclusion rooms is to remove children from the classroom who are behaving inappropriately to allow them time and space to calm down and regain control of their behavior. (R., Compl., Ex. A.) Staff also have used the room to seclude students presenting dangers to themselves or to others. (R., Compl., Ex. A.)

In October 2004, the parents of G.M., a student enrolled in Lincoln's special education program, complained to DRW that a staff member had physically restrained and dragged G.M. to a seclusion room on the lower-level of the school.³ This report was apparently the first report that DRW received regarding the use of seclusion rooms at Lincoln.

The seclusion room at issue in the complaint was approximately five feet by nine feet in size. Dark grey carpeting covered the floor and the walls. Fluorescent ceiling lighting illuminated the room, along with a window in the door. The door to the room had a lock and no interior door knob, which violated the fire code and has since been remedied. (R., Jt. Stipulated Findings of Fact ¶ 7.)

On February 27, 2005, a television station in Madison, Wisconsin, informed DPI that it intended to air a report about a seclusion room in a state school district. The station refused to identify the district to DPI. On March 1, a reporter from the station requested comments from DRW regarding an investigation into the seclusion room at Lincoln. The television report, which aired on March 2, 2005, showed the seclusion room and included interviews with children who claimed they had been locked inside. The broadcast also featured interviews with those children's parents.

After the broadcast, additional parents who either knew or suspected that their children had been locked in the seclusion room requested help from DRW. Because many of these children are nonverbal or have limited verbal capacities, some parents are unable to determine whether their children were placed in the seclusion room. Also following the broadcast, DPI — the agency charged with, among other things, enforcing compliance with state and federal special education laws in Wisconsin — launched an investigation into Lincoln's use of the seclusion room. DPI concluded that the room violated a number of state and federal laws and revealed that Lincoln staff had placed six children inside. Its report, however, did not identify the children by name.

DRW obtained a copy of DPI's findings on April 11, 2005, and that same day informed DPI that it was conducting its own investigation of the room. DRW also asked DPI to provide a copy of its investigative file (which would include the names of the children) or send a copy of its findings to the parents of the six children who had been placed in the seclusion room during the 2004-2005 school year. DPI eventually sent the file but redacted the children's names and any information that might identify them. DPI explained that it decided to redact the information based on court decisions, state and federal pupil confidentiality laws (including the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act (IDEA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA)), and preliminary guidance received from the U.S. Department of Education.

DRW eventually filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in the Western District of Wisconsin, seeking release of the names. The district court converted the motion to a motion for a permanent injunction and gave the parties time to file additional materials. The court eventually denied DRW's request, reasoning that DRW did not show that it had exhausted its administrative remedies or explain why it need not do so, and also that the federal protection and advocacy statutes require DRW to know the names of the individuals whose records it wishes to access or to try to obtain consent for that access from the students' legal representatives. DRW timely appealed, arguing that the federal P&A statutes entitle it to all the information in DPI's files.

II. Discussion

Resolving this case requires us first to understand how the federal P&A statutes operate and next to determine whether FERPA affects their application in the context of school-related records. We review questions of statutory interpretation de novo. Gaffney v. Riverboat Servs. of Ind., Inc., 451 F.3d 424, 445 (7th Cir.2006). In the context of a district court's denial of an injunction, we review legal conclusions de novo and findings of fact for clear error. Joelner v. Village of Wash. Park, 378 F.3d 613, 619-20 (7th Cir.2004).

A. The Federal P&A Statutes

DPI contends that the federal P&A statutes do not entitle DRW to the information it seeks. DRW contends that it is entitled to the information it seeks even in the absence of authorization from the individuals' guardians. Addressing those arguments requires a close examination of the federal P&A statutes governing the protection and advocacy system.

The core requirement of the federal P&A statutes is that, in order to receive federal funding, each state must establish an effective protection and advocacy system to respond to allegations of abuse and neglect and generally to protect the rights of individuals with disabilities. 42 U.S.C. § 15043(a)(2)(A)(i); 42 U.S.C. § 10805(a)(1); 29 U.S.C. § 794e(f)(3). The DD Act, the PAIMI Act and the PAIR Act establish separate but largely parallel regimes to serve particular populations of people with disabilities. See Gary P. Gross, Protection and Advocacy System Standing — To Vindicate the Rights of Persons With Disabilities, 22 MENTAL AND PHYSICAL DISABILITY LAW RPTR. 674, 674 (Sept.-Oct.1998) (providing extensive background on the P&A system).

The DD Act, which Congress enacted in 1975, was the first statute to establish a federally directed P&A system. It, like the later-enacted PAIMI and PAIR Acts, requires that states establish P&A agencies such as DRW, and authorizes those agencies "to pursue legal, administrative and other appropriate remedies or approaches" to ensure...