NEW YORK STATE ASS'N, ETC. v. Carey

• Decision Date: 28 February 1979
• Docket Number: No. 72-C-356,72-C-357 and 72-C-2039.,72-C-356
• Citation: 466 F. Supp. 487
• Parties: NEW YORK STATE ASSOCIATION FOR RETARDED CHILDREN, INC., et al., and Patricia Parisi et al., Plaintiffs, v. Hugh L. CAREY, Individually and as Governor of the State of New York, et al., Defendants, United States of America, Amicus Curiae. Thomas A. COUGHLIN III, Individually, and as Commissioner of the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, Third-Party Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF NEW YORK, Frank J. Macchiarola and Charles I. Schonhaut, Third-Party Defendants. Christine WEST, on behalf of her son Mark West, a minor, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF NEW YORK, Frank J. Macchiarola, et al., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Eastern District of New York

466 F. Supp. 487

NEW YORK STATE ASSOCIATION FOR RETARDED CHILDREN, INC., et al., and Patricia Parisi et al., Plaintiffs, v. Hugh L. CAREY, Individually and as Governor of the State of New York, et al., Defendants, United States of America, Amicus Curiae.

Thomas A. COUGHLIN III, Individually, and as Commissioner of the Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities, Third-Party Plaintiff, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF NEW YORK, Frank J. Macchiarola and Charles I. Schonhaut, Third-Party Defendants.

Christine WEST, on behalf of her son Mark West, a minor, Individually and on behalf of all others similarly situated, Plaintiffs, v. BOARD OF EDUCATION OF the CITY OF NEW YORK, Frank J. Macchiarola, et al., Defendants.

Nos. 72-C-356, 72-C-357 and 72-C-2039.

United States District Court, E. D. New York.

February 28, 1979.

New York Civil Liberties Union, Mental Health Law Project, New York City, Christopher A. Hansen, New York City, of counsel, Kalman E. Finkel, Legal Aid Soc., Civil Appeals & Law Reform Unit, New York City, Carol Kellermann, New York City, of counsel, for plaintiffs.

LeBoeuf, Lamb, Leiby & MacRae, New York City, Taylor R. Briggs, New York City, of counsel, for defendants.

Allen G. Schwartz, Corp. Counsel of the City of New York, New York City, Robert S. Deutsch, New York City, Mary C. Tucker, Brooklyn, N. Y., of counsel, George Shebitz, New York City, Bd. of Ed. Legal Dept., for third-party defendants.

U. S. Dept. of Justice, Civil Rights Division, Washington, D. C., Lucy L. Thomson, Washington, D. C., of counsel, for amicus curiae.

BARTELS, District Judge.

This is a motion pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 57 by the New York City Board of Education ("the Board"), third-party defendant in this consolidated action, for a declaratory judgment establishing the validity of its proposed plan for segregating within the public schools certain mentally retarded children who are epidemiologically classified as carriers of hepatitis B virus.¹ This application is a sequel to the Memorandum Decision and Order of this Court dated September 14, 1978, wherein this Court enjoined the Board, Chancellor of the Board, Frank J. Macchiarola, and Acting Executive Director of the Division of Special Education and Pupil Personnel Services, Charles I. Schonhaut, from totally excluding the carriers from the public school system on the basis of their hepatitis B status, and further ordered the readmission of the excluded children to the public schools "in accordance with the procedures utilized for the general student population." New York State Association for Retarded Children, Inc. v. Carey, et al., 466 F.Supp. 479 (E.D.N.Y.1978).

In response to the Court's decision and under circumstances which will appear more fully below, the Board thereafter convened a task force for the purpose of formulating a plan for the education of the retarded carrier children within the public schools but in classes and activities separate from all non-carrier retarded children. A proposed plan was finalized by the Board in mid-October 1978, at which time it was presented to all other parties to this action for review. Upon their rejection of the proposal in early November and prior to its implementation in the schools, the Board initiated the instant application for a ruling that the plan is in accord with the 1975 Willowbrook Consent Judgment entered into by the parties to the principal action, New York State Association for Retarded Children, Inc. v. Carey, et al., 393 F.Supp. 715 (E.D.N.Y.1975), and with all applicable laws, rules, and regulations. This motion is opposed by plaintiffs and other interested parties, including defendant and third-party plaintiff, New York State Office of Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities ("O.M.R.D.D.") Commissioner, Thomas A. Coughlin III, and the United States Department of Justice, as amicus curiae, on the ground that the Board's proposal is violative of various provisions of the Consent Judgment, § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, as amended by the Rehabilitation, Comprehensive Services, and Developmental Disabilities Amendments of 1978, 29 U.S.C. § 794, the Education of the Handicapped Act, as amended by the Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975, 20 U.S.C. §§ 1401 et seq., the New York State Education Law, §§ 4401 et seq., and the Due Process and Equal Protection Clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment.² Hearings were held on November 9, 14, 20, and 28, 1978, at which time all the pertinent evidence was adduced. Having considered this evidence and the briefs submitted by the parties, the Court has reached the following opinion, which contains its findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Jurisdiction

The jurisdiction of this Court over the Board's application is not seriously contested. In addition to its authority to oversee implementation of the above-mentioned Consent Judgment, see New York State Association for Retarded Children, Inc. v. Carey, 438 F.Supp. 440, 446 (E.D.N.Y.1977); New York State Association for Retarded Children, Inc. v. Carey, 466 F.Supp. at 482, this Court has jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 1343(3) and 20 U.S.C. § 1415(e) to adjudicate claims under the Constitution and applicable provisions of federal law, and pendent jurisdiction may appropriately be exercised over the State educational law claims. Id. Plaintiffs initially questioned the existence of a case and controversy under Article III of the Constitution, which contention they subsequently withdrew. We believe that the Board's application for a declaratory judgment is a highly appropriate and commendable means to resolve the presently existing dispute between the parties, which, if not resolved prior to implementation of the proposed plan, could result in substantial administrative expense and, more important, irreparable disruption of the educational programs of the retarded children affected. The Declaratory Judgment Act was devised by Congress for precisely this type of situation. See 28 U.S.C. § 2201; Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 57; Broadview Chemical Corp. v. Loctite Corp., 417 F.2d 998, 1001 (2d Cir. 1969), cert. denied, 397 U.S. 1064, 90 S.Ct. 1502, 25 L.Ed.2d 686 (1970).

We find also that, contrary to suggestion by the Board, all parties necessary to the adjudication of this action have been joined. Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 19(a); Welsch v. Likins, 550 F.2d 1122, 1130-31 (8th Cir. 1977); Liquifin Aktiengesellschaft v. Brennan, 383 F.Supp. 978, 983-84 (S.D.N.Y.1974). Although as will become evident the Board relied heavily upon recommendations of the New York City Department of Health in devising the proposal in question, it is the validity of the Board's own action, not that of the Health Department, which must be adjudicated, and we reject the suggestion by the Board that the Department is an indispensable party. Even assuming that the Board could demonstrate that joinder of the Department of Health would be helpful in resolving the dispute, we fail to see how presentation of the Board's case would have been materially improved in view of the apparent willingness of Health Department personnel to testify — and of their actual testimony— on the Board's behalf not only at the hearings in November, but also at those in September. Any interest of the Department of Health was adequately represented by the Board.

I. FACTS

Background

The underlying civil rights action was instituted in 1972 under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 on behalf of a class of mentally retarded residents of Willowbrook Developmental Center (now Staten Island Developmental Center), alleging severely overcrowded and unsanitary conditions at the Center, significant shortages of sufficiently trained staff, and inadequate or non-existent medical and educational programs necessary to foster the habilitation and educational development of Willowbrook residents.³ The major points of contention were settled in April 1975 by the Willowbrook Consent Judgment, which has since been modified by order of the Court on March 10, 1977 and September 15, 1978. The essence of the Consent Judgment is its mandate that defendants provide Willowbrook residents with the "least restrictive and most normal living conditions possible . . .," Consent Judgment, § A(1), and that defendants "ready each resident . . . for life in the community at large . . ." Id., § V(9). To these ends, defendants are required to "develop a full program of normalization and community placement with a full complement of community services . . .," id., which services shall include "a full and suitable educational program" in the New York City schools where such placement is appropriate to a particular individual's educational needs. Id., §§ F(1), (10); V(13).

Under the supervision of Commissioner Coughlin, defendants have placed approximately 1,000 Willowbrook residents in family homes and community residences since May 1976. For many of those individuals between ages five and twenty-one, arrangements have been made to attend special education programs in the public schools under the jurisdiction of the Board. Though these programs are of various types, several should be noted briefly: first, Trainable Mentally Retarded ("T.M.R.") classes for moderately retarded children who can profit from training in social and occupational skills; second, Track IV classes for lower functioning T.M.R. children who require training in the most basic skills, such as eating, dressing, and toiletting; third, Adult Skills Training Centers ("A.S. T.C.") for T.M.R. students between the ages of 15 to 21 years who can benefit from additional training in skills necessary to live effectively in the community, such as home living and environment skills, food preparation, and light industrial workshop skills; and fourth, Occupational Training Centers ("O.T.C.") for students between the ages of 16 and 21 years who have the capacity to travel independently...