Goodall by Goodall v. Stafford County School Bd.
| Decision Date | 11 April 1991 |
| Docket Number | No. 90-1014,90-1014 |
| Citation | 930 F.2d 363 |
| Parties | , 67 Ed. Law Rep. 79 Matthew B. GOODALL, an infant by his father and next friend, Robert B. GOODALL; Robert B. Goodall; Kathleen N. Goodall, Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. STAFFORD COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD, Defendant-Appellee. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit |
Robert Brandt Goodall, argued, Easterling & Goodall, Stafford, Va., for plaintiffsappellants.
Scott Sanford Cairns, McGuire, Woods, Battle & Boothe, Richmond, Va., for defendant-appellee.
Kathleen S. Mehfoud, Hazel & Thomas, P.C., Richmond, Va., on brief, for amicus curiae Virginia School Boards Ass'n.
J.T. Tokarz, Richmond, Va., on brief, for amicus curiae County School Bd. of Henrico County.
Before ERVIN, Chief Judge, MURNAGHAN, Circuit Judge, and YOUNG, Senior U.S. District Judge for the District of Maryland, sitting by designation.
Matthew B. Goodall, an infant by his father and next friend (and counsel) Robert B. Goodall, Robert B. Goodall and Matthew's mother, Kathleen N. Goodall (collectively the Goodalls), brought an action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, Alexandria Division, seeking an order directing appellee School Board of Stafford County, Virginia to provide Matthew, who is deaf, with a cued speech interpreter at Fredericksburg Christian School. The Goodalls also sought reimbursement for costs incurred in providing such an interpreter themselves. On cross-motions for summary judgment, the district court entered judgment in favor of the County, and the Goodalls have appealed.
Matthew Goodall is a minor and has been a resident of Stafford County since his birth. He became profoundly hearing impaired after an attack of meningitis at age 3 1/2. Shortly thereafter, he was identified as a handicapped child for whom special education services were appropriate.
In 1980, 1981, 1982 and 1983, Individualized Educational Plans (IEPs) were prepared for Matthew, with the consultation and concurrence of Matthew's parents, calling for special education and related services to be provided at Spotswood Elementary School, a public school. Matthew attended a preschool class in the regional special education program at Spotswood Elementary School along with several other deaf children who were about his age. Matthew continued to participate in the program through the first grade.
In 1984, Matthew's parents voluntarily placed Matthew at The Word of Life School, a private religious school in Fredericksburg, Virginia, which he attended through the fourth grade. In 1986, they voluntarily placed Matthew in the Stafford Christian School, a private religious school in Stafford, for the fifth and sixth grades.
In 1988, Matthew's parents decided that he should attend Fredericksburg Christian School, a private religious school, to further his religious education and development. Fredericksburg Christian School is a sectarian, religious school, in which Christian teachings are woven into the curriculum together with non-religious subjects. The curriculum includes Biblical education and spoken prayer as one of the daily activities. Matthew receives no special education at Fredericksburg Christian School.
In the summer of 1988, the Goodalls requested that the public schools of Stafford County again provide special education services to Matthew. An IEP meeting was held in September of 1988. The Goodalls participated in the meeting and a draft IEP was prepared. The draft IEP indicated that hearing-related services were still appropriate for Matthew and proposed to provide those services at the Drew Middle School, a Stafford County public school.
Matthew's parents objected to Matthew's receiving interpretive services at Drew Middle School and asked the County to provide a full-time cued speech interpreter at Fredericksburg Christian School. The Goodalls wanted the County to provide a cued-speech interpreter to be present, full-time, in Matthew's classroom. The interpreter's job would be to interpret the sounds in the classroom into physical representations that Matthew could understand. Thus, the interpreter they envisaged would need to be present during Matthew's religious instruction and would interpret that religious instruction to enable Matthew to understand.
The County denied the Goodalls' request, but offered to provide a cued speech interpreter to Matthew at Drew Middle School, a public school in Stafford County. Nothing suggests other than that the County stands ready to do so today. The Goodalls requested a due process hearing to challenge the County's position. The state Hearing Officer ruled that the County was not responsible for providing a cued speech interpreter to Matthew because he was unilaterally placed in a private, sectarian school by his parents for personal reasons. The Hearing Officer further held that for the County to provide a cued speech interpreter at Fredericksburg Christian School with public funds would violate the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
The Goodalls appealed the Hearing Officer's decision to the Virginia Department of Education. The state Review Officer's decision of September 9, 1989 affirmed the decision of the Hearing Officer, specifically holding that the requested action would violate the Establishment Clause.
The Goodalls then filed the action currently before us on October 10, 1989, seeking an order directing the County to provide a cued speech interpreter for Matthew Goodall at Fredericksburg Christian School and seeking reimbursement for their costs incurred in providing such an interpreter to Matthew.
From a summary judgment in the favor of the County School Board the Goodalls have appealed.
We first address the question whether Virginia or the federal special education law requires the County to provide a cued speech interpreter to a student at a private, sectarian school. The Goodalls have contended that the Virginia laws and regulations implementing federal assistance under the Education of All Handicapped Children Act, 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1400 et seq. (EHA), require Stafford County to provide Matthew with a cued speech interpreter at the Fredericksburg Christian School.
The EHA is a comprehensive entitlement program providing federal financial assistance to participating states for the education of handicapped children. To qualify for the funds, a participating state must have in effect "a policy that assures all handicapped children the right to free appropriate public education." Id. Sec. 1412(1). See generally Board of Educ. v. Rowley, 458 U.S. 176, 102 S.Ct. 3034, 73 L.Ed.2d 690 (1982). The Act places primary responsibility for the provision of such appropriate public education on state and local educational agencies. 20 U.S.C. Sec. 1400. Receipt of federal funds is also conditioned upon submission of a satisfactory special education plan. Id. Sec. 1412(2).
The Commonwealth of Virginia is a participating state and has established the required policy in the Virginia Code, Secs. 22.1-213 to -221; the Virginia Constitution, art. VIII, Sec. 10; and the state's special education regulations. See Schimmel By Schimmel v. Spillane, 819 F.2d 477, 484 (4th Cir.1987). Virginia's policies and procedures have been approved by the United States Department of Education. 1
Several provisions of the Virginia Code implementing the EHA specifically draw a distinction between nonsectarian schools and sectarian schools such as Fredericksburg Christian School. See Va.Code Ann., Secs. 22.1-216, 218, and 220. The Goodalls seek to advance the argument that the combined effect of the three statutes, limited as they are to non-sectarian private schools, does not prohibit the County from furnishing Matthew with a cued speech interpreter at a sectarian school because, while a religious school contract is not referred to in section 22.1-216, the County could provide the service with its own employees or with interpreters hired through non-sectarian schools or agencies. 2 With the hope of buttressing their position, the Goodalls point to section 22.1-219 of the Virginia Code:
Nothing in this article shall be construed to restrict or prohibit the use of any federal, state or local funds made available under any federal, state or local appropriation or grant.
Ingenious the Goodalls' arguments may be, but they fail to hold water when viewed from the greater context of the general prohibitions regarding sectarian schools found in the Virginia Constitution and other sections of the Virginia Code. As one example, in legislating for children in the custody of state boards or agencies, the General Assembly has authorized education in any public or "private nonsectarian school" but not in sectarian ones. Va.Code Ann. Sec. 22.1-7. In addition, Article VIII, Sec. 10 of the Virginia Constitution prohibits appropriations to sectarian schools or institutions of learning.
Virginia's constitutional terms and statutory language consistently express a policy of funding special education only in nonsectarian schools. Section 22.1-219 was simply designed to ensure that handicapped students are not denied the benefit of other federal, state or local programs simply because Virginia has mandated the delivery of a free and appropriate education for them. The interpretation sought by the Goodalls would eliminate in large measure the "nonsectarian" qualification in Virginia Code sections 22.1-216, 218, and 220, as well as the Virginia Constitution. See Posey v. Commonwealth, 123 Va. 551, 553, 96 S.E. 771 (1918) (). 3
Moving agilely to another legal area, the Goodalls next contend that, even if Virginia law can be construed as prohibiting the County's provision of a cued speech interpreter at Fredericksburg Christian School, federal law--the...
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