John K., In re

Decision Date30 July 1985
Citation170 Cal.App.3d 783,216 Cal.Rptr. 557
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeals Court of Appeals
Parties, 26 Ed. Law Rep. 741 In re JOHN K., a Minor. Richard LA POINTE, Contra Costa County Superintendent of Schools, Plaintiffs and Respondents, v. JOHN K., a minor, et al., Defendants and Appellants. AO21929.

Lawrence Siegel, San Francisco, for defendants and appellants.

Marchmont J. Schwartz, Margery Q. Lee, Trembath, McCabe, Schwartz, Evans & Levy, Concord, for plaintiff and respondent Contra Costa Co. Sch. Dist.

John K. Van De Kamp, Atty. Gen., John Klee, Deputy Atty. Gen., San Francisco, for plaintiff and respondent State Superintendent of Public Instruction.

NEWSOM, Associate Justice.

Respondents brought an action in the Superior Court of Contra Costa County for declaratory relief under the Education of the Handicapped Act (20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.; hereafter, the Act), and corresponding provisions of the California law (Ed. Code, § 56000 et seq.), seeking review of two administrative decisions of the State Superintendent of Public Instruction pursuant to which respondents were ordered to reimburse appellants for the cost of private school placement. After a hearing, the trial court reversed the administrative rulings as "counter to law and fact," and found that respondents were not obligated to reimburse appellants for the costs of placement of John K. in a private residential educational facility. The facts relevant to the appeal are as follows.

John K. (hereafter John) was born in Illinois in 1963. He suffered from a speech disability at the age of five, and was given therapy which apparently remedied the problem.

By November of 1973, John was first characterized as educationally handicapped. In September of 1974, it was recommended that he receive psychological counseling along with medication, and continue in an educationally handicapped program to deal with his learning disability.

In March of 1976, according to a school appraisal test, John was classified as suffering from a mild learning disability; a resource specialist program at the Los Medanos Campus of the Moraga School District was recommended. His parents agreed with this placement.

In November of 1976, with the passage of the Act, the first Individualized Education Program (IEP) was established for John. His improvement, including successful partial integration into regular classes, was noted. In June of 1977, a second IEP was devised for John, which recommended that he continue in a regular program, supplemented with minimal special services. Another IEP was done in September of 1977; once more John seemed to be progressing fairly well, and it was agreed that he would remain in a regular program with some assistance from a resource specialist in language, writing, spelling, composition and grammar.

John's performance and behavior deteriorated substantially during the course of the 1977-1978 school year--he was in the eighth grade at the time. His resource specialist, Rose Overacker, observed in John increased hostility, anger, and rebelliousness, and conveyed her concerns to the boy's parents. At a review session in February of 1978, John's parents agreed to continue with the IEP implemented the previous September.

At the end of the 1977-1978 school year, John was removed from school for slashing the tires on a teacher's car. He was nevertheless permitted to graduate from the eighth grade, although his grades were very poor.

In August of 1978, John ran away from home. He was later charged with trespassing and malicious mischief, made a ward of the juvenile court, and released to the custody of his parents. On August 22, 1978, he was assessed by the Lafayette Therapy Center, and described as "self-destructive," with "poor impulse control."

In the fall of 1978, John was enrolled in the local public high school, Campolindo. Respondent school district concluded a staff review of special education students, including John, with the participation of his parents, and it was tentatively decided that his IEP would remain unchanged in high school.

After commencing high school at Campolindo on September 6, 1978, John was made a ward of the juvenile court the following day. He was thereafter repeatedly truant from school, and ran away from home between September 14 and 20, 1978. He was charged with several offenses during this period: violation of a court order, possession of marijuana, and joyriding. His absence from school made it difficult for the Campolindo resource specialist to test, evaluate and assess him, or develop an IEP.

Due to his continual truancy, John was suspended from Campolindo on October 2, 1978, without prior consultation or notice to his parents. Subsequently, on October 11, he left school citing as a reason admission to a private school. Between October of 1978 and April of 1979, John spent considerable time in Contra Costa County Juvenile Hall and residential facilities. Respondent school district neither assessed John during this period nor developed a new IEP for him. His parents attempted to place him in private schools in November of 1978, and again in January of 1979, without success. John's probation officer recommended placement at Byron's Boy's Ranch, a county residential school facility, but the child's parents sought other placement in private schools and withdrew John from the public school system by January of 1979.

In January of 1979, John's parents contacted the school district. Audrey Catlin, respondent school's social worker, visited John at juvenile hall, and recommended long-term residential placement in an "open setting." On January 18, 1979, an Education Assessment Service (EAS) meeting was held, with both Mr. and Mrs. K. in attendance together with the EAS staff, to discuss John's placement. In January and February of 1979, the EAS staff met informally without John's parents to discuss the case and prepare for upcoming meetings. In February and March of 1979 additional EAS conferences were held with John's parents, who requested that any final placement decision be delayed pending the outcome of juvenile court proceedings involving John.

John's parents were interested in placing John at Provo Canyon School (PCS), a private, locked residential school in Utah. Respondent was not convinced that PCS would be the most favorable facility in which to place John, and advised his parents that the district would not pay for the costs at a private residential school unless placement was through EAS channels.

On March 21, 1979, a juvenile court referee placed John at Boy's Center, one of respondents' facilities in the juvenile system. John's parents were dissatisfied with this placement, and appealed the decision to the Contra Costa County Superior Court. A hearing was held on April 6--without respondents' participation--at which John's parents requested placement of their son at PCS, where he had actually been enrolled since March of 1979. The court reversed the referee's decision, ordered John released from the probation department to the custody of his parents for placement at PCS and noted that John's parents, rather than the probation department or the school district would be obligated to pay for the costs of the placement.

On April 18, 1979, John's parents met with respondents to develop an IEP for John. The school district's staff recognized John's educational handicap, noted the need for "remedial instruction in the basic academic areas," and recommended "small group instruction." Without conceding that PCS was the best placement for John, respondents agreed to pay only the "educational costs" at that facility.

In light of respondents' decision to pay no more than the educational costs of John's placement at PCS, appellants requested a due process hearing to "determine fairly and impartially if the Contra Costa responsible agency is financially responsible for the residential education placement and all related services ... at Provo Canyon School...." The local fair hearing panel found that respondents were not responsible for the cost of John's placement at PCS made unilaterally by John's parents. This decision was reversed by a state administrative hearing officer on appeal, on the ground that respondents failed to assess John or develop an appropriate IEP for him in 1978.

Appellants instituted another state level administrative hearing to recover the cost of John's placement at private schools before PCS. The findings from the prior hearing were adopted, and additional reimbursement was awarded to appellants. Respondents thereafter instituted this action.

Appellants first complain that the trial court erred by reviewing the administrative decision in accordance with the independent judgment rule rather than a more constrained test. Relying on the United States Supreme Court decision in Hendrick Hudson Dist. Bd. of Ed. v. Rowley (1982) 458 U.S. 176, 102 S.Ct. 3034, 73 L.Ed.2d 690, they argue that the trial court should have refrained from substituting its "own notions of sound educational policy for those of the school authorities" which it reviewed.

The review procedures under the Act are specified by 20 U.S.C. section 1415(e)(2), which provides: "Any party aggrieved by the findings and decision ... shall have the right to bring a civil action.... In any action brought under this paragraph the court shall receive the records of the administrative proceedings, shall hear additional evidence at the request of a party, and, basing its decision on the preponderance of the evidence, shall grant such relief as the court determines is appropriate." (Emphasis added; see also 45 C.F.R. § 121a.510 and § 121a.511.) This court ruled in San Francisco Unified School Dist. v. State of California (1982) 131 Cal.App.3d 54, 182 Cal.Rptr. 525 that the review procedures specified in 20 U.S.C. section 1415(e)(2), rather than state administrative...

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