G.L. v. Ligonier Valley Sch. Dist. Auth.

• Decision Date: 22 September 2015
• Docket Number: No. 14–1387.,14–1387.
• Citation: 802 F.3d 601
• Parties: G.L.; Mr. G.L. and Mrs. E.L., in their own right v. LIGONIER VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT AUTHORITY, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

802 F.3d 601

G.L.; Mr. G.L. and Mrs. E.L., in their own right

v.LIGONIER VALLEY SCHOOL DISTRICT AUTHORITY, Appellant.

No. 14–1387.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

Argued: Dec. 16, 2014.

Filed: Sept. 22, 2015.

John K. Greiner, Esq., Charles W. Jelley, Esq. [Argued], Margaret A. Tremba, Esq., Kristen C. Weidus, Esq., Tremba, Jelley & Kinney, Greensburg, PA, for Appellees.

Christina Lane, Esq. [Argued], Sanchez Legal Group, Pittsburgh, PA, for Appellant.

Mark L. Gross, Esq., Holly A. Thomas, Esq., United States Department of Justice, Washington, DC, for Amicus Curiae.

Jennifer N. Rosen Valverde, Esq. [Argued], Rutgers University School of Law Special Education Clinic, Newark, NJ, for Amici Appellees.¹

Before: McKEE, Chief Judge, GREENAWAY, JR., and KRAUSE, Circuit Judges.

OPINION

KRAUSE, Circuit Judge.

The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) broadly authorizes the courts to provide appropriate relief, including compensatory education, to children who have been deprived by their state or local educational agencies of a free appropriate public education. When Congress reauthorized the IDEA in 2004, it enacted 20 U.S.C. § 1415(f)(3)(C), a statute of limitations that requires parents to file a due process complaint no more than two years after the parents “knew or should have known” about the alleged deprivation, that is, within two years of the reasonable discovery of that violation.² The legislation simultaneously amended 20 U.S.C. § 1415(b)(6)(B), which previews the various procedural safeguards available to parents, including the opportunity to file that due process complaint. The new language added to this prefatory subsection, however, described the due process complaint as alleging an injury that occurred not more than two years before the reasonable discovery date.

In an appeal stemming from a due process complaint filed by the parents of G.L., a student with special needs, we consider, in a matter of first impression among the Courts of Appeals, how these two provisions should be interpreted together and what effect they have on the courts' authority to remedy IDEA violations, in particular, through the award of compensatory education. We address today which, of a variety of interpretations, is correct: Does § 1415(b)(6)(B) limit compensatory education to injuries occurring two years before the filing of the complaint, even if earlier injuries are claimed within two years of their reasonable discovery, as urged by Appellant Ligonier Valley School District Authority? Does it limit compensatory education to injuries that occurred from two years before their reasonable discovery through the filing of the complaint, up to two years after that discovery, i.e., the “2+2” approach taken by the District Court and urged by G.L.? Does it impose only a pleading requirement, without affecting the availability of a remedy for timely and well-pleaded claims, as argued by Amici Appellees and G.L. in the alternative? Or is it simply a restatement, albeit ill-phrased, of the same two-year statute of limitations set forth in § 1415(f)(3)(C), as asserted by the United States Department of Education (“DOE”)? Recognizing the uncertainty in this area, the District Court certified the question for interlocutory appeal.

We now conclude, after careful consideration of the parties' plain language arguments, the statutory context and structure, the DOE's interpretive guidance, and the legislative history, that § 1415(b)(6)(B) is simply an inartful attempt to mirror § 1415(f)(3)(C)'s two-year statute of limitations. That is, both sections reflect the same two-year filing deadline for a due process complaint after the reasonable discovery of an injury, and § 1415(b)(6)(B) neither imposes a pleading requirement nor in any respect alters the courts' broad power under the IDEA to provide a complete remedy for the violation of a child's right to a free appropriate public education.

I. Facts and Procedural History

A. G.L.'s Schooling

After spending the previous year at a parochial school, G.L. entered high school in the Ligonier Valley School District (the “District”) in the fall of 2008.³ At a school open house shortly after he started, G.L.'s teacher told his father that G.L. seemed distracted in class and lacked organizational skills. G.L.'s father then orally requested that the District evaluate G.L. for any special education needs. The request was to no avail: No evaluation was conducted and, instead, in the wake of a tragic car accident in which G.L. lost his older sister, the District, purportedly on the basis of information in her obituary, opened an investigation into whether G.L. even lived within District boundaries. That investigation confirmed G.L.'s residence and thus the District's obligation under the IDEA to provide him with a free appropriate public education (“FAPE”).

In the meantime, however, G.L. continued to struggle academically. For a time, he was able to keep those struggles partially hidden from his parents by intercepting and altering his report card. At the conclusion of the 2008–09 school year, however, District officials informed G.L.'s parents that he would need to repeat the ninth grade. It was at this point that his parents learned that he was being bullied at school on the basis of his sexual orientation, with students regularly calling him a “faggot” and a “homo,” and that as a result he was having trouble eating, sleeping, and concentrating on his studies.

Faced with the District's contention that G.L. should repeat the ninth grade, G.L.'s parents complained to the school principal about the bullying and again requested that G.L. be evaluated for special education needs. The conversation became heated, and the principal told G.L.'s father to speak with the parents of the bullying students himself. The principal also informed G.L.'s parents that a request for special education evaluation needed to be in writing. G.L.'s father then immediately handwrote and submitted a request, which G.L.'s mother followed up with an email to the principal. Apparently not caring for the tone of that email, the principal made an angry phone call to each of G.L.'s parents. The same day, the principal requested that the District again investigate the residency of G.L. and his family.

The District then began another investigation, representing to the family that the new investigation was based on an anonymous phone call to the District. Meanwhile, the principal also conducted his own ad-hoc investigation, using school computers to search for voting records of G.L.'s parents. Over the next month, it appears little was done to assist G.L. with the challenges he faced either academically or socially. The District did, however, demand that the family provide a number of additional documents to prove residency. Eventually, the District agreed to formally evaluate G.L. for the remedial support to which he might be entitled pursuant to the IDEA, and in August 2009, after the familyhired an attorney, yet again confirmed that G.L. lived within District boundaries.

Thus, when G.L. returned to school in the fall, the District finally evaluated him for his special education needs for the 2009–10 school year and instituted a plan to prevent him from being bullied. That evaluation revealed that G.L. did indeed have learning disabilities in math, reading, and writing. In November 2009, the District offered to G.L.'s parents an Individualized Education Program (“IEP”), which G.L.'s parents found inadequate and sought to supplement with supports tied to each of G.L.'s special needs. Despite multiple meetings between the parents and District officials during the months of December and January, they were unable to agree on the educational goals that would satisfy a FAPE for G.L.

While the parties were attempting to negotiate a satisfactory IEP over the fall and winter, the District also attempted to implement a plan to prevent G.L. from being bullied. However, by January 2010, the bullying not only had continued, but had grown to include the participation of the school's football coach, who allegedly made a disparaging remark to another student about that student's relationship with G.L., and did so in front of some of the very students who were bullying G.L. When he learned of this public remark by the coach, G.L. became distraught and refused to return to school. Instead, his parents picked up and returned his school work, which he completed at home. As this went on, G.L.'s IEP team continued to meet, and his parents were in regular contact with District officials to attempt to address the bullying situation.

In March 2010, G.L. was evaluated by an intermediate unit psychologist, who conditionally diagnosed him with two additional disabilities, including post-traumatic stress disorder

caused by the ongoing bullying. On March 8, 2010, frustrated with the bullying that had been allowed to escalate and apparently had caused additional disabilities in their child, upset by his academic struggles, and dissatisfied with the IEP offered by the District, G.L.'s parents withdrew him from the school and enrolled him in a cyber charter school. The District has conceded that March 9, 2010 reflects the date G.L.'s parents “knew or should have known” about the deprivation of a free appropriate public education to G.L., that is, the reasonable discovery date for purposes of this case.⁴

On January 9, 2012, within two years of the reasonable discovery date, and thus within the statute of limitations set forth in § 1415(f)(3)(C), G.L.'s parents filed their due process complaint, alleging that the District denied him a FAPE and requesting compensatory education for September 2008 through March 2010—that is, the entire period that G.L. was allegedly denied a FAPE by the District before he withdrew from school.

B. Procedural History

As required by the IDEA, G.L.'s parents initially requested their due process hearing by filing a complaint with the ...