A.P. v. Lower Merion Sch. Dist., CIVIL ACTION NO. 18-4331
| Decision Date | 01 August 2019 |
| Docket Number | CIVIL ACTION NO. 18-4331 |
| Parties | A.P., a Minor, BY His Parent, E.F. v. LOWER MERION SCHOOL DISTRICT |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Pennsylvania |
Mu'min F. Islam, MFI Law Group PLLC, Philadelphia, PA, for A.P., a Minor, by His Parent, E.F.
Michael D. Kristofco, Ahmer H. Sheriff, Amy Hathaway Taylor Brooks, Wisler Pearlstine, LLP, Blue Bell, PA, for Lower Merion School District.
In this action brought under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"), E.F., the mother of a disabled child seeking compensatory education from the Lower Merion School District ("District"), appeals the decision of the Office of Dispute Resolution ("ODR") hearing officer affirming the District's determination that her child was not a resident of the District at the time she attempted to enroll him. Because a school district is obligated to provide a free appropriate public education ("FAPE") only to students who reside in the district, the hearing officer found that the student was not entitled to IDEA services from the District, and dismissed E.F.'s due process complaint without deciding the underlying special education claims.
Both parties have moved for summary judgment. Although E.F. agrees with the hearing officer's finding that she was living in the District on the date of the attempted enrollment, she argues that he erred in applying Maryland law to conclude that she and her son were residents of Maryland and not the District. Although the District disagrees with the hearing officer's finding that E.F. was living in the District on that day, it argues that the hearing officer's ultimate conclusion that its determination of non-residency was supported by substantial evidence was correct.
We find that the hearing officer erred when he limited the time period for assessing where E.F. was living to the date of the attempted enrollment. However, because there is substantial evidence supporting his conclusion that E.F. was not a resident of the District, we conclude that the legal error was harmless. Although the hearing officer did consider Maryland law, he did not, as E.F. argues, apply it in determining E.F.'s residency under Pennsylvania law. Therefore, we affirm the ODR's decision upholding the District's determination of non-residency and grant judgment in favor of the District.
E.F., the mother and sole guardian of A.P. and his two sisters, enrolled her children in the Lower Merion School District during the 2014-15 school year. A.P., a disabled child entitled to special education services under the IDEA, attended middle school, and his two sisters attended elementary school. During that school year, the family lived in their home in Wynnewood, which is located in the District.1
Dissatisfied with the District's implementation of A.P.'s individual educational plan, E.F. sought alternate placements or compensatory education. In April of 2015, E.F. informed the District that she wanted it to consider the Ivymount School, a private day school located in Rockville, Maryland, as a placement for A.P.2 In May, the parties engaged in negotiations regarding A.P.'s placement at a non-District school. The District offered E.F. alternative placements and an Educational Services Agreement ("ESA"). In the proposed ESA, the District agreed to reimburse E.F. for the cost of tuition for the 2015-16 and 2016-17 school years at an educational institution selected by her. As a condition, she had to reside in the District during those two years. Because she wanted to send A.P. to Ivymount, which was almost a three-hour drive from the District, she rejected the offer due to the residency requirement.3
Without reaching an agreement with the District, E.F. enrolled A.P. at Ivymount. On June 19, 2015, she signed a two-year lease for a single-family house in Bethesda, Maryland. The rental was $3,800.00 a month for the term from August 1, 2015 to July 31, 2017.4 Ten days later, she signed a tuition contract with Ivymount for A.P. to attend seventh grade for the upcoming school year, starting August 26, 2015, and ending June 10, 2016.5
On August 24, 2015, E.F. moved to Maryland with A.P. and her two daughters. She enrolled A.P.'s sisters in a nearby public elementary school.6 The house was within a fifteen-minute drive of Ivymount and the daughters' public school. It was fully stocked with clothing, school supplies, furniture and bedding. The lease allowed the family dog and cat to live there.7
During the 2015-16 school year, A.P. attended Ivymount and his sisters attended Maryland public school. During the school week, they slept in Maryland. On weekends and holidays, they stayed in Wynnewood and returned to Maryland on Sunday evenings. E.F. spent school days and nights in Maryland except when she worked in Philadelphia as an emergency room doctor and slept at her District house. For nine months of the year, she worked two blocks of four nightshifts each month, for a total of eight nightshifts per month. In February, July and December, E.F. worked a third block of shifts to cover the Presidents' Day, July Fourth and Christmas holidays. When working in Philadelphia on weeknights, she arranged child care for the children in Maryland.8
On October 8, 2015, after receiving E.F.'s request to stop sending her automated notifications of A.P.'s absences from school, the District marked A.P. as "withdrawn" from the District as of the first day of the 2015-16 school year. It noted that "he moved from the district."9
In December 2015, midway through A.P.'s school year at Ivymount, E.F. filed a due process complaint against the District with the ODR, seeking reimbursement for the cost of the school's tuition.10 In February of 2016, after a resolution meeting, E.F. provided the District with a copy of her Maryland lease and a statement of tuition payments she had made to Ivymount for that school year.11 Three months later, in May of 2016, E.F. and the District resolved the December 2015 due process complaint and entered into an ESA, providing E.F. reimbursement for tuition at Ivymount for the 2015-16 school year. Notably, because the District viewed the family as not residing in the District, the Agreement did not require the family to be District residents for that year.12
On June 1, 2016, E.F. signed an agreement with Ivymount for the 2016-17 school year and paid a $4,685.00 deposit. The enrollment included an extended school year programming ("ESY") session in July 2016. On June 9, at the same time she submitted receipts for reimbursement for A.P.'s Ivymount tuition for the 2015-16 school year and for the ESY session in July of 2016, E.F.'s counsel sent the District the enrollment agreement and proof of payment of the tuition deposit for the 2016-17 school year.13
From June 10, the last day of Ivymount's 2015-16 school year, to June 20, 2016, her daughters' last day of school, E.F. resided with her children in Maryland.14 At the end of the day on June 20, E.F. and the children went back to their house in the District where they stayed until A.P.'s ESY session at Ivymount began on July 5. They did not pack up the house in Maryland, leaving everything there so that "it was waiting for [them] when [they] got back."15
On June 20, E.F. applied to enroll A.P., but not her daughters, in the District for the 2016–17 school year by completing the online new student registration.16 On July 1, she met with the District registrar to complete A.P.'s enrollment. She presented utility and tax bills and the deed to her Wynnewood home, A.P.'s health records, his Ivymount report card and the IEP. She told the registrar that A.P. was attending school out-of-state and that she wanted to continue sending him there for the upcoming ESY and regular school year because the District was unable to educate him. Even though she did not enroll him in a District school, she requested he be enrolled in the District so he could be evaluated for special education services. The paperwork she provided met the registration requirements on the Registration Checklist. Because A.P. was a special education student, the registrar sent the enrollment package to Kimberly Fraser, the District's Director of Special Education and Student Services, and informed her that E.F. "re-registered him for evaluation purposes."17
On July 5, 2016, E.F. emailed Fraser to inform her that she had "re-enrolled" A.P. in the District and to request an IEP meeting. She stated that since A.P. "has special needs" the District "cannot meet, I understand he requires a continued out of district school placement." She also noted that "he has thrived at lvymount."18
Fraser received A.P.'s enrollment documents from the registrar and E.F.'s July 5, 2016 email a few weeks later.19 Because the District and E.F. had been engaged in discussions and negotiations regarding A.P.'s placement at a non-District school since April of 2015, Fraser noticed that the enrollment documents were inconsistent with what she knew about the family's school enrollment and living arrangements during the past year and the plans to continue that arrangement in the upcoming school year. She was aware that E.F. had been residing with her three children in Maryland in a house with a year remaining on a two-year lease; had already enrolled A.P. in Ivymount for the 2016-17 school year; had previously enrolled her daughters in the Maryland public schools the previous school year; and did not attempt to enroll them in the District on June 20, 2016. Based upon what she knew, Fraser believed that E.F. intended for A.P. to attend Ivymount and her daughters to attend public school in Maryland, and the family to live in Maryland during the 2016-17 school year. Thus, she determined that E.F. was a resident of Maryland and not the District.20
Several months earlier, when E.F. and the District were negotiating a settlement of the December 2015 Due Process case, it became clear...
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