Hanson ex rel. Hanson v. Smith, CIV. H-01-4016.

• Decision Date: 09 August 2002
• Docket Number: No. CIV. H-01-4016.,CIV. H-01-4016.
• Citation: 212 F.Supp.2d 474
• Parties: Jonathan HANSON, a minor by his parents and next friends, Robert and Judith HANSON and Robert and Judith Hanson, Plaintiffs, v. Eric SMITH, Superintendent, Anne Arundel County Public Schools and Board of Education of Anne Arundel County, Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Maryland

212 F.Supp.2d 474

Jonathan HANSON, a minor by his parents and next friends, Robert and Judith HANSON and Robert and Judith Hanson, Plaintiffs, v. Eric SMITH, Superintendent, Anne Arundel County Public Schools and Board of Education of Anne Arundel County, Defendants.

No. CIV. H-01-4016.

United States District Court, D. Maryland.

August 9, 2002.

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Brian Keith Gruber, Law Office, Chevy Chase, MD, for Plaintiffs.

Eric Charles Brousaides, Reese and Carney LLP, Columbia, MD, for Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

ALEXANDER HARVEY, II, Senior District Judge.

This civil action has been brought by the parents of a child with learning disabilities. Suit has been instituted under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"), 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et. seq. (1997) and the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 ("Section 504"), 29 U.S.C. § 794.¹

Jonathan Hanson ("Jonathan"), a minor, and his parents Robert Hanson and Judith Hanson ("the Hansons") have here sued the Board of Education of Anne Arundel County and its Superintendent. The Hansons allege, inter alia, that defendants failed to provide Jonathan with a "free appropriate public education" for the 2001-02 school year and that they violated the IDEA in various other respects. In this suit, the Hansons have challenged the ruling of Administrative Law Judge J. Bernard McClellan (the "ALJ") which affirmed the educational placement for Jonathan for the 2001-02 school year proposed by the Board of Education for Anne Arundel County Public Schools (hereinafter "AACPS").

Before the 2001-02 school year, Jonathan had been placed in a non-public special education school serving children with language based and learning disabilities pursuant to an Individual Education Program ("IEP") approved by AACPS. As a result of a review of his status in July of 2001, a public placement was proposed. In their seven-count complaint, the Hansons challenge that placement, contending that procedural and substantive errors were committed by the ALJ.

Pursuant to a Scheduling Order entered by the Court, the parties have engaged in discovery. Presently pending in the case is defendants' motion for summary judgment and plaintiffs' cross-motion for summary judgment. Memoranda and numerous exhibits have been submitted by the parties in support of and in opposition to these motions, including a transcript of the hearing held before the ALJ and a copy of his Decision of December 13, 2001. At a status conference held with counsel, the Court determined that the issues in this case had been fully developed by the parties' submissions and that no hearing was necessary for a decision on the pending motions. See Local Rule 105.6. For the reasons stated herein, defendants' motion for summary judgment will be granted, and plaintiffs' cross-motion for summary judgment will be denied.

I Background Facts and Prior Proceedings

Jonathan is twelve years old and resides with his parents in Anne Arundel County. Jonathan has multiple special education needs, including significant language based deficiencies, speech articulation deficiencies, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder and poor memory skills. As a result, he requires special education and related services. He has attended since the 1997-98 school year and continues to attend the Summit School, a private school in Anne Arundel County. The Summit School is fully accredited by the State Department of Education and serves primarily students with language and learning disabilities. AACPS has funded Jonathan's attendance at the Summit School since the 1998-99 school year. In January of 2001, AACPS began the process of re-evaluating Jonathan as mandated by the IDEA. Pursuant to this re-evaluation, AACPS conducted an academic assessment, speech and language assessment and class room observation of Jonathan. However, no updated psychological examination of Jonathan was performed.

AACPS completed its evaluation in March of 2001, and the results were discussed with the Hansons at a meeting on March 12, 2001. AACPS did not because of time constraints adopt at that time a new IEP for Jonathan for the 2001-02 school year. In the Spring of 2001, the Hansons learned that AACPS had developed a new special education public program housed at its Severna Park Middle School and known as the "Learning Academy". This school had been designed to emulate the approach of the Summit School and had been developed to eliminate the need of AACPS to fund certain children in non-public schools. The Hansons were told in the Spring of 2001 that there was a strong possibility that AACPS would propose that Jonathan attend the Learning Academy even though his IEP had not yet been developed. The Hansons requested that they be permitted to visit and observe the Learning Academy in advance of the IEP review and placement meeting. However, arrangements were never made during the school year for them to attend and observe school sessions at the Learning Academy.

The annual IEP review meeting for Jonathan's placement was eventually held on July 2, 2001. At this meeting, which was attended by the Hansons, an IEP was developed for Jonathan for 2001-02 containing substantially similar goals, objectives, accommodations, modifications and the same level of speech-language intervention as the IEP in place for him for the 2000-01 school year. Pursuant to the 2000-01 IEP, AACPS had recommended the placement of Jonathan in the Summit School because it had determined that the recommended accommodations and instructional component modifications could not be delivered in a public school setting. However, for the 2001-02 school year the AACPS system recommended a change in the placement of Jonathan to the Learning Academy, with his participation in a regular-education setting for one elective and for certain other non-academic periods. The Hansons objected to this change in placement, claiming that there was an absence of data that might reasonably indicate that Jonathan would receive an educational benefit from inclusion in regular-education classes, so-called "mainstreaming".² The Hansons were concerned that Jonathan was not ready to participate in a mainstream school setting and that his educational advancement might be jeopardized.

On August 14, 2001, the Hansons requested that, pursuant to Maryland law, an administrative hearing be held to review the evaluation of Jonathan by AACPS and his placement in the Learning Academy. A due process hearing was held on November 1,2 and 16, 2001 before Administrative Law Judge J. Bernard McClellan of the Maryland Office of Administrative Hearings. Exhibits were submitted, and the ALJ heard testimony on several substantive issues, namely whether the level of service and the proposed placement were appropriate for Jonathan, and whether the school system had failed to provide him with a free, appropriate, public education ("FAPE"). Other exhibits and testimony received by the ALJ related to procedural issues, namely, (1) the alleged failure of the school system to conduct a psychological examination of Jonathan as a part of its annual re-evaluation, (2) the school system's alleged determination of placement prior to the formulation of the IEP, and (3) the school system's alleged failure to provide an opportunity for the Hansons to be true partners in the educational planning process by denying them the opportunity to visit and observe the Learning Academy prior to adoption of the new IEP.

In his Decision of December 17, 2001, the ALJ held that the school system's proposed IEP for Jonathan and his placement in the Learning Academy for the 2001-02 school year were appropriate. He further held that no procedural violations had occurred.

On December 21, 2001, plaintiffs filed this civil action in this Court, challenging the adverse decision of the ALJ. Jonathan had meanwhile returned to the Summit School for the 2001-02 school year. Because the Hansons have challenged the ALJ's decision in this Court, AACPS continues to fund the cost of Jonathan's attendance at the Summit School.

II Applicable Principles of Law

It is well established that a party moving for summary judgment bears the burden of showing the absence of any genuine issue of material fact and that the movant is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Barwick v. Celotex Corp., 736 F.2d 946, 958 (4th Cir.1984). When a complaint is filed in federal court under the IDEA challenging the decision of a state ALJ, the complaint is subject to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, including the well settled rules of summary judgment. Cavanagh v. Grasmick, 75 F.Supp.2d 446, 457 (D.Md.1999). Nevertheless, what in other cases is traditionally understood as a Rule 56 motion for summary judgment may more aptly be described in the IDEA context as a motion for summary adjudication, wherein the district court is required to conduct a de novo review of the administrative record while giving "due weight" to the administrative findings made below. Id.; see also Doyle v. Arlington County Sch. Bd., 953 F.2d 100, 103 (4th Cir.1991), aff'd 39 F.3d 1176 (4th Cir.1994). Courts have agreed that summary judgment is the most pragmatic procedural mechanism for resolving IDEA cases. Steinberg v. Weast, 132 F.Supp.2d 343, 345 (D.Md.2001) (citing King v. Board of Educ. of Allegany County, 999 F.Supp. 750, 764 (D.Md. 1998)).

The IDEA statute was originally named the Education of the Handicapped Act³ and was enacted by Congress to ensure that all children with disabilities had access to a "free appropriate public education." Gadsby v. Grasmick, 109 F.3d 940, 942 (4th Cir.1997). Congress sought to ensure this goal by providing federal money to states and local agencies to assist in the education of handicapped children. Board of Educ. of Hendrick Hudson Cent. Sch. Dist. v. Rowley, 458 U.S. 176, 179, 102 S.Ct. 3034, 73 L.Ed.2d 690 (1982). "The term `free...