M.T.V. v. Dekalb County School Dist., No. 04-16133.
| Decision Date | 18 April 2006 |
| Docket Number | No. 04-16133. |
| Citation | 446 F.3d 1153 |
| Parties | M.T.V., C.T.V., C.E.V., Plaintiffs-Appellants, v. DeKALB COUNTY SCHOOL DISTRICT, Sandy Foxworth, individually, et al., Defendants-Appellees. |
| Court | U.S. Court of Appeals — Eleventh Circuit |
Chris E. Vance, Atlanta, GA, for Plaintiffs-Appellants.
Stefan Ernst Ritter, Alfred L. Evans, Jr., Atlanta, GA, Phillip Leroy Hartley, Martha M. Pearson, Harben & Hartley, LLP, Gainesville, GA, Assunta F. Deevey, Alan F. Herman, Hawkins & Parnell, Brian Thomas Moore, Paul Willard Burke, Drew, Eckl & Farnham, LLP, James T. McDonald, Jr., Swift, Currie, McGhee & Hiers, Charles W. Billingsley, Jr., Greene, Buckley, Jones & McQueen, Atlanta, GA, for Defendants-Appellees.
Appeal from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
Before EDMONDSON, Chief Judge, and BLACK and FAY, Circuit Judges.
This appeal arises from a long-standing dispute between the parents of M.T.V., a child eligible for special education services under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. § 1400, and the DeKalb County School District. Appellants, M.T.V. and his parents, C.T.V. and C.E.V., first argue the district court erred in dismissing their retaliation claims brought pursuant to the IDEA, the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act (Section 504), 29 U.S.C. § 794, the First Amendment, and 42 U.S.C. § 1983 against the School District and various individual defendants for failing to exhaust the IDEA's administrative remedies. They next argue the district court erred in affirming an Administrative Law Judge's (ALJ's) order requiring them to consent to the School District's request to reevaluate M.T.V, or else forfeit his services under the IDEA. We affirm.
Though cognitively gifted, M.T.V. has several neurological disabilities and attention deficit disorder. His disabilities affect his speech, language skills, motor coordination, and vision. M.T.V. has been eligible for special education services under the IDEA since he enrolled in the School District in 1997. When the School District first evaluated M.T.V., it found him eligible for services only under the IDEA's "Speech and Language Impairment" category, even though his parents also expressed concerns about possible motor impairments. In 1999, M.T.V.'s parents continued to have these concerns and had him privately tested by an independent evaluator. They learned he had significant motor deficits and, in February 1999, asked the School District for an Individualized Education Program (IEP) meeting to discuss adding services to improve his motor skills.
M.T.V.'s parents contend the School District then began what has become "a long history of ongoing retaliation, coercion, intimidation, [and] threats." They allege the School District no longer allowed them to attend IEP meetings before or during school, forcing them to find child care, and began limiting the time allotted for IEP meetings, requiring them to attend multiple meetings and miss work each time. They further allege the School District brought school administrators and lawyers into IEP meetings who would harass and scream at them. They also make numerous related allegations, including that the School District disallowed M.T.V.'s former school occupational therapist from continuing to work with him because she advocated for him at an IEP meeting; placed M.T.V. in a storage closet for occupational therapy; refused to afford them the same privileges as other parents, such as helping in the classroom and attending school functions; and wrote them numerous harassing and intimidating letters.
As their relationship deteriorated, M.T.V.'s parents began pursuing formal complaints against the School District. In April 2000, they filed a federal lawsuit unrelated to this case. They allege the judge orally directed the School District not to treat M.T.V. differently from other children and not to test M.T.V. without parental consent. M.T.V. was then diagnosed with a vision impairment, and his parents asked the school to provide vision therapy as a related service under M.T.V.'s IEP. The school refused, and M.T.V.'s parents began providing the therapy themselves. After the School District denied their request for reimbursement, M.T.V.'s parents requested a due process hearing on the matter. They allege the retaliation only worsened at this point. In fact, they allege the School District devised a scheme to subject M.T.V. to countless needless and intrusive tests, which brings us to their next claim.
In May 2002, M.T.V.'s IEP Team convened to discuss his continued eligibility under the IDEA. The Team first determined he was eligible to continue receiving speech services based on a reevaluation conducted in February 2002. However, over his parents' objections, the Team questioned his continued eligibility for services addressing his motor impairments, which he had been receiving under the IDEA's "Other Health Impaired" (OHI) category since August 1999. Because he had made significant progress on his OHI goals, the School District hired an expert to administer several different tests to M.T.V. The School District sent a letter to his parents requesting consent to conduct the reevaluation, explaining M.T.V. was due for his triennial evaluation under the IDEA and his services might no longer be appropriate given his progress.
M.T.V.'s parents refused to consent to the reevaluation, complaining M.T.V. "has been tested and tested and that needless or repetitive testing must be avoided." They argued the evaluation would include several tests unrelated to the OHI category, such as IQ tests and psychiatric evaluations, and asserted this unnecessary testing constituted harassment. After a series of attempts to secure consent from M.T.V.'s parents, the School District requested a due process hearing to enforce its right to evaluate M.T.V. by an expert of its choice. The ALJ ruled in favor of the School District and ordered M.T.V.'s parents to cooperate with the reevaluation.
M.T.V. and his parents filed a complaint against the School Board and several defendants in their official and individual capacities, seeking injunctive relief and damages for retaliation in violation of the ADA, Section 504, the IDEA, the First Amendment, and § 1983.1 They also challenged the order entered by the ALJ requiring M.T.V's parents to consent to the School District's reevaluation. The district court first dismissed the plaintiffs' retaliation claims because they were subject to the IDEA's exhaustion requirement, and the plaintiffs had neither exhausted their administrative remedies nor shown such an effort would have been futile. The court then affirmed the ALJ's order, construing the School Board's motion for summary judgment as a motion for judgment on the record. M.T.V. and his parents subsequently filed this appeal against the School District and three individuals in their personal capacities, Stanley Hawkins and Wendy Jacobs, lawyers who represent the School District, and Sandy Foxworth, a former special education administrator for the School District.
"We review de novo the district court's grant of a motion to dismiss under 12(b)(6) for failure to state a claim, accepting the allegations in the complaint as true and construing them in the light most favorable to the plaintiff." Hill v. White, 321 F.3d 1334, 1335 (11th Cir.2003). "[T]he usual F.R. Civ. P. 56 summary judgment principles do not apply in an IDEA case." Loren F. v. Atlanta Indep. Sch. Sys., 349 F.3d 1309, 1313 (11th Cir. 2003). Because nothing prevents "district judges from factfinding under F.R. Civ. P. 52 in IDEA cases," their decisions are "better described as judgment[s] on the record." Id. at 1313-14 (quotation omitted). We, in turn, review the district judge's interpretations of law de novo and "[w]here the district court does not receive any additional evidence or testimony, this court stands in the same shoes as the district court in reviewing the administrative record and may, therefore, accept the conclusions of the ALJ and district court that are supported by the record and reject those that are not." Id. (quotation omitted).
The primary purpose of the IDEA is "to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education [FAPE] that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for employment and independent living." 20 U.S.C. § 1400(d)(1)(A).2 To meet this end, the IDEA provides funding to assist state and local agencies in educating children with disabilities. Id. § 1400(d). In turn, state and local education agencies must identify children with disabilities and develop annual IEPs for each child. Id. § 1414. The IEP is a comprehensive document developed by a team of parents, teachers, and other school administrators outlining the goals of the child, and the special education and related services needed to meet those goals. Id. § 1414(d).
The IDEA also provides an extensive framework under which parents can "present complaints with respect to any matter relating to the identification, evaluation, or educational placement of the child, or the provision of a [FAPE] to such child." Id. § 1415(b)(6). Parents can first request "an impartial due process hearing, which shall be conducted by the State educational agency or by the local educational agency, as determined by State law or by the State educational agency." Id. § 1415(f). In Georgia, such hearings are conducted by the Office of State Administrative Hearings. O.C.G.A. § 50-13-41(a)(1). If parents are dissatisfied with the ALJ's decision, they can then bring a civil action in either state or federal court. 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(2)(a).
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