I.R. v. L.A. Unified Sch. Dist.

• Citation: 805 F.3d 1164
• Decision Date: 17 November 2015
• Docket Number: No. 13–56211.,13–56211.
• Parties: I.R., a minor by her Mother E.N., Plaintiff–Appellant, v. LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, Defendant–Appellee.
• Court: United States Courts of Appeals. United States Court of Appeals (9th Circuit)

805 F.3d 1164

I.R., a minor by her Mother E.N., Plaintiff–Appellant

v.LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT, Defendant–Appellee.

No. 13–56211.

United States Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit.

Argued and Submitted July 10, 2015.

Filed Nov. 17, 2015.

Jennifer Guze Campbell, Vanessa Jarvis (argued), Special Education Law Firm, APC, Lakewood, CA, for Plaintiff–Appellant.

David Holmquist, Diane H. Pappas, Patrick J. Balucan (argued), Office of General Counsel, Los Angeles Unified School District, Los Angeles, CA, for Defendant–Appellee.

Appeal from the United States District Court for the Central District of California, Manuel L. Real, District Judge, Presiding. D.C. No. 2:12–cv–09924–R–VBK.

Before: STEPHEN REINHARDT and RICHARD R. CLIFTON, Circuit Judges, and MIRANDA M. DU,^* District Judge.

OPINION

DU, District Judge:

California Education Code § 56346(f) requires school districts to initiate a due process hearing if the school district determines that a portion of an Individualized Education Program (“IEP”) to which a parent does not consent is necessary to provide a child with a Free Appropriate Public Education (“FAPE”) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”). 20 U.S.C. §§ 1400 –1450. This appeal raises the issue of a school district's responsibility to initiate a due process hearing within a reasonable time after a child's parents fail to consent to the provision of services necessary to provide a FAPE. Because we conclude that a period of a year and a half is too long for a school district to wait to initiate a due process hearing pursuant to California Education Code § 56346(f), we reverse and remand.

I. BACKGROUND

Appellant I.R. is a child. I.R., through her mother (“Mother”), contends that Appellee Los Angeles Unified School District (“LAUSD”) failed to provide I.R. with a FAPE for the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 school years in which I.R. was in second and third grade.

In 2006, in response to Mother's request for an assessment, LAUSD found I.R. to be eligible for special education under the category of “autistic-like” behaviors. An initial IEP meeting was held in August 2006. However, Mother decided to enroll I.R. in a private preschool and then a private school through first grade.

In the fall of 2010, Mother sought to enroll I.R. at Heliotrope Elementary School, a public school in LAUSD, for second grade. In September 2010, Mother consented to portions of the August 2006 IEP but did not consent to other portions. I.R. was placed in a second grade general education class with a one-on-one special education aide.

A later IEP, prepared on November 9, 2010, recommended placement in a special education environment at Heliotrope. On November 10, 2010, Mother's counsel wrote a letter to Heliotrope's principal in which she consented to some of the services offered in the IEP but disagreed with the special education placement. Among other things, Mother wanted I.R. to be placed in a general education classroom with a one-on-one aide. In a response letter dated November 19, 2010, Heliotrope's principal affirmed that I.R. would remain in her general education placement, pursuant to an earlier IEP issued on October 13, 2010. However, the response letter noted that the IEP members believed that I.R. required a smaller classroom setting with individualized instruction, which was not available in the general education classroom.

Several more IEP meetings were held throughout I.R.'s second and third grade years, from March 2011 to February 2012. From November 2010 until February 2012, all the IEPs recommended placing I.R. in a special education environment.¹ Mother consented to portions of the IEPs but never consented to the IEPs' proposal to place I.R. outside of the general education classroom. LAUSD implemented components of the services offered in the IEPs to which Mother gave her consent, but not the portions to which Mother did not consent and, as a result, I.R. remained in a general education class with a special education aide.

On May 29, 2012, I.R. filed a request for a due process hearing in which she raised a number of issues. Relevant to this appeal is the issue of whether LAUSD denied I.R. a FAPE by failing to provide I.R. with an appropriate placement during each of the 2010/2011 and 2011/2012 school years. For the most part, LAUSD prevailed at the hearing. The administrative law judge (“ALJ”) who conducted the hearing concluded that the program proposed by LAUSD was appropriate for I.R. and that LAUSD had thus offered her a FAPE. The ALJ acknowledged that California Education Code § 56346(f) required LAUSD to initiate a due process hearing if it determined that the component to which a parent did not consent was necessary to provide a FAPE. The ALJ's decision stated that the “District acknowledged that the general education classroom placement was inappropriate and, therefore, [the] District failed to provide [a] FAPE.” Nonetheless, the ALJ did not hold LAUSD liable for failing to request a due process hearing. Instead, the ALJ concluded that “the evidence convincingly establishes that [LAUSD] offered an appropriate placement, but Mother's refusal to consent prevented [the] District from implementing and providing a FAPE.”

I.R. appealed to the district court, but that court affirmed the ALJ's decision.

The court noted that the ALJ had found that LAUSD had not provided I.R. with a FAPE for two years, a finding that LAUSD did not contest before the district court. The court further observed that the ALJ also found that LAUSD had offered an appropriate program, a finding that I.R. did not contest before the district court. Instead, before the district court, I.R. focused on the failure of LAUSD to request a due process hearing. On that subject, the district court noted that the ALJ had excused LAUSD for its failure to provide a FAPE because I.R.'s parents refused to consent to LAUSD's proposed program. The district court agreed and affirmed. With regard to the failure to initiate a due process hearing, the district court held that LAUSD could not initiate such a hearing or take action to override the parents' failure to consent under 20 U.S.C. § 1414. Nor, under that section, the district court held, could LAUSD be held liable for its failure to provide a FAPE. The district court thus affirmed the ALJ's decision in favor of LAUSD.

I.R. timely appealed. This court has jurisdiction over this appeal pursuant to 28 U.S.C. § 1291. K.D. ex rel. C.L. v. Dep't of Educ., 665 F.3d 1110, 1116 (9th Cir.2011).

II. STANDARD OF REVIEW

I.R. raises questions of law and is thus entitled to de novo review. See Amanda J. ex rel. Annette J. v. Clark Cty. Sch. Dist., 267 F.3d 877, 887 (9th Cir.2001) (“Questions of law and mixed questions of fact and law are reviewed de novo, unless the mixed question is primarily factual.”). Further, the Ninth Circuit reviews de novo “the district court's decision that the school district complied with the IDEA.”E.M. ex rel. E.M. v. Pajaro Valley Unified Sch. Dist. Office of Admin. Hearings, 758 F.3d 1162, 1170 (9th Cir.2014) (quoting K.D., 665 F.3d at 1117 ).

III. DISCUSSION

A.

The district court held that, in effect, 20 U.S.C. § 1414 foreclosed LAUSD from initiating a due process hearing. We disagree.²

When interpreting a statute, the court begins with the statutory text and interprets “statutory terms in accordance with their ordinary meaning, unless the statute clearly expresses an intention to the contrary.” United States v. Neal, 776 F.3d 645, 652 (9th Cir.2015). “[W]e must read the words [of a statute] ‘in their context and with a view to their place in the overall statutory scheme.’ ” King v. Burwell, ––– U.S. ––––, 135 S.Ct. 2480, 2489, 192 L.Ed.2d 483 (2015) (quoting Food & Drug Admin. v. Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corp., 529 U.S. 120, 133, 120 S.Ct. 1291, 146 L.Ed.2d 121 (2000) ). “Particular phrases must be construed in light of the overall purpose and structure of the whole statutory scheme.” United States v. Lewis, 67 F.3d 225, 228–29 (9th Cir.1995).

The district court's error is apparent upon examination of the plain language of the applicable statutes. The district court appears to have been relying on 20 U.S.C. § 1414(a)(1)(D)(ii)(II),³ which states that if the parent “refuses to consent to services under clause (i)(II), the local educational agency shall not provide special education and related services to the child by utilizing the procedures described in [20 U.S.C. § 1415 ].” Section 1415, in turn, grants school districts the power to initiate a due process hearing. However, 20 U.S.C. § 1414(a)(1)(D)(ii)(II) and its implementing regulations, by their plain text, foreclose a school district from initiating a due process hearing only where a parent has refused consent before the initial provision of special education and related services. Clause (i)(II), the parental consent provision to which § 1414(a)(1)(D)(ii)(II) refers, states that a school district must obtain parental consent “before providing special education and related services to the child.” 20 U.S.C. § 1414(a)(1)(D)(i)(II) (emphasis added). The implementing regulation similarly forecloses a school district's ability to file a due process complaint and relieves it of its duty to provide a FAPE only “[i]f the parent of a child fails to respond to a request for, or refuses to consent to, the initial provision of special education and related services....” 34 C.F.R. § 300.300(b)(3) (emphasis added).

The statute relied upon by the district court thus does not apply where, as in this case, a parent consented to special education and related services, but did not consent to a specific component of the IEP.⁴ The district court therefore erred in concluding that LAUSD could not initiate a due process hearing to address Mother's refusal of the IEPs' recommended placement.

B.

LAUSD conceded at oral argument that a school district is required to initiate a due process hearing pursuant to California Education Code § 56346(f). LAUSD...