Princeton City School Dist. Bd. of Edn. v. Ohio State Bd. of Edn.

• Citation: 96 Ohio App.3d 558,645 N.E.2d 773
• Decision Date: 17 August 1994
• Docket Number: No. C-930214,C-930214
• Parties: , 97 Ed. Law Rep. 473 PRINCETON CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., Appellants, v. OHIO STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., Appellees. *
• Court: Ohio Court of Appeals

Page 558

96 Ohio App.3d 558

645 N.E.2d 773, 97 Ed. Law Rep. 473

PRINCETON CITY SCHOOL DISTRICT, BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., Appellants, v. OHIO STATE BOARD OF EDUCATION et al., Appellees. ^*

No. C-930214.

Court of Appeals of Ohio, First District, Hamilton County.

Decided Aug. 17, 1994.

Rendigs, Fry, Kiely & Dennis and John W. Hust, Cincinnati, for appellants.

Lee Fisher, Atty. Gen., and Karin E. Wilson, Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellees.

PER CURIAM.

In 1989, the Ohio General Assembly created the Educational Management Information System ("EMIS"). R.C. 3301.0714. EMIS is a statewide computer information network for Ohio public schools. EMIS has three main components: the statute itself (R.C. 3301.0714), a rule (Ohio Adm.Code 3301-14-01), and guidelines. Four local boards of education--Princeton, Reading, Kings, and North College Hill (appellants)--challenged the constitutionality of all three components. ¹ Appellants brought a declaratory judgment action against the Ohio State Board of Education ("state board"), the Ohio Department of Education ("department of education"), and Ted Sanders, the state Superintendent of Public Instruction. ² The Department of Education consists of the state board and the superintendent. The Department of Education is the administrative unit through which the board seeks to administer EMIS. R.C. 3301.13 and 3301.0714(A).

In the action below, the court invalidated the portion of the statute that required school officials to collect staff social security numbers. Pursuant to R.C. 1.50, the court severed that section of the statute. The court, however, upheld the remaining portions of EMIS.

In this appeal, appellants challenge the trial court's judgment in two assignments of error. In the first assignment, they argue that R.C. 3301.0714 is an improper delegation of legislative authority. Specifically, they contend that the legislature cannot allow an administrative body to create rules and guidelines without using the rulemaking process provided in the Administrative Procedure Act, R.C. Chapter 119 ("APA"). In the second, appellants contend that R.C 3301.0714 violates the federal Family Educational and Privacy Rights Act, Section 1232g, Title 20, U.S.Code ("FEPRA"). FEPRA denies federal funds to schools that release certain student education records. For the reasons that follow, we overrule both assignments of error.

FIRST ASSIGNMENT OF ERROR: DELEGATION

Our analysis of appellants' delegation argument begins with the fundamental proposition that the legislative power of this state is vested in the General Assembly. Section 1, Article II, Ohio Constitution. The Ohio General Assembly has a "plenary grant of power" to pass any statute that does not conflict with the state or federal constitutions. State ex rel. Jackman v. Court of Common Pleas (1967), 9 Ohio St.2d 159, 161-162, 38 O.O.2d 404, 405-406, 224 N.E.2d 906, 909. One constitutional limit on the general assembly is the prohibition against delegating "legislative power." Belden v. Union Cent. Life Ins. Co. (1944), 143 Ohio St. 329, 342, 28 O.O. 295, 300-301, 55 N.E.2d 629, 635; see, also, Panama Refining Co. v. Ryan (1935), 293 U.S. 388, 55 S.Ct. 241, 79 L.Ed. 446 (federal analog). Given that limit, however, the general assembly constitutionally may delegate rulemaking authority to subordinate boards and agencies. Belden at 342, 28 O.O. at 300-301, 55 N.E.2d at 635.

Delegation of rulemaking authority is a necessary response to the increasing complexity of modern government. In re Adoption of Uniform Rules and Regulations Relating to Valuation of Real Property (1959), 169 Ohio St. 445, 455, 8 O.O.2d 465, 469-470, 160 N.E.2d 275, 281-282; Zangerle v. Evatt (1942), 139 Ohio St. 563, 573, 23 O.O. 52, 55-57, 41 N.E.2d 369, 373-374; 1 Davis & Pierce, Administrative Law Treatise (1994) 77-79, Section 2.6; 3 Stein, Mitchell & Mezines, Administrative Law (1993) 13-2, Section 13.01. Concerning school boards specifically, the Ohio Supreme Court has recognized a particular need to allow the legislature to delegate broad powers. Ohio Assn. of Public School Employees v. Stark Cty. Bd. of Edn. (1992), 63 Ohio St.3d 300, 304, 587 N.E.2d 293, 296 ("OAPSE"), citing Panama Refining. As a general matter, if the legislature provides a sufficient policy statement in the enabling statute, the delegation of rulemaking is proper. In re Rules, 169 Ohio St. at 455, 8 O.O.2d at 469-470, 160 N.E.2d at 281-282; Matz v. J.L. Curtis Cartage Co. (1937), 132 Ohio St. 271, 276, 8 O.O. 41, 44-45, 7 N.E.2d 220, 224-225. In the words of Justice Cardozo in his dissenting opinion in Panama Refining, which dissent is cited with approval in Matz, the statute must define policy so that the rule is "canalized within banks that keep it from overflowing." Matz, 132 Ohio St. at 280, 8 O.O. at 45, 7 N.E.2d at 225. When the rule is not "unconfined and vagrant" it is a permissible delegation of legislative authority. Id.

As a result of these legal precepts and administrative necessities, the Ohio General Assembly has developed an extensive body of administrative law. The legislature has created a complex of administrative agencies with both quasi-legislative and quasi-judicial powers. See, generally, R.C. 119.01(A). It also created the elaborate statutory framework of the APA to govern the activities of those administrative bodies. R.C. 119.01 to 119.13. The APA, which itself is a creation of the legislature, was passed in 1943. 120 Ohio Laws 358. The legislature required certain agencies with rulemaking power to use the APA notice-and-hearing procedures. R.C. 119.01(A). The General Assembly also listed certain boards and agencies to which the notice-and-hearing provisions of the APA do not apply. R.C. 119.01(A). When those agencies have acted within their statutorily delegated boundaries, the Ohio Supreme Court has approved the legislature's delegation of rulemaking authority. ³

As a general matter, the rulemaking functions of the Department of Education, which includes the state board, are subject to R.C. Chapter 119. R.C. 3301.13; Rossford Exempted Village School Dist. v. State Bd. of Edn. (1989), 45 Ohio St.3d 356, 358, 544 N.E.2d 651, 653. Concerning the statutory policy directives in EMIS, the legislature indicated that it wanted the state board to create a vast computer network to collect, compile, and report certain kinds of data. R.C. 3301.0714. The statute specifically detailed the data that the legislature wanted compiled and reported. The statute directed the state board of education to collect information on student participation, performance, classroom enrollment, and demographics. R.C. 3301.0714(B). In addition, ostensibly to ensure accountability, the legislature required the board to prepare a report for public distribution based on this information. R.C. 3301.0714(H). With this degree of specificity, this EMIS statute has provided more exact policies and standards than previous cases in which the Ohio Supreme Court has approved rulemaking delegation. See, generally, OAPSE, 63 Ohio St.3d at 304, 587 N.E.2d at 296; In re Rules at 455, 8 O.O.2d at 469-470, 160 N.E.2d at 281-282.

Pursuant to this "canalized" policy statement, the statute directed the state board to adopt a rule for EMIS and develop guidelines within the confines of that rule for the establishment and maintenance of the system. R.C. 3301.0714(A). The state board promulgated the rule for the operation of EMIS through the rulemaking process outlined in R.C. 119.01 to 119.13. As the legislature directed, however, the board did not create the guidelines within the APA. R.C. 119.01(C).

The trial court was persuaded that the legislature intended for the "guidelines" to be exempt from R.C. Chapter 119. Therefore, the court reasoned, the statute, rule, and guidelines were valid. ⁴ Even though we agree with the decision of the trial court, we come to our conclusion for a different reason. For the purposes of the APA, the legislature has defined the term "rule," but not the term "guideline." R.C. 119.01(C) and 111.15(A)(1). By analyzing the substance, rather than the nomenclature, of these provisions, we accept the Attorney General's argument that these are guidelines, not rules. When the legislature created EMIS, it directed the state board to create a rule to implement the information system. The board did that by enacting Ohio Adm.Code 3301-14-01 within the rulemaking process in R.C. Chapter 119. In the statute, the legislature gave the state board explicit instructions on what information to include in the system. It left to the guidelines only the procedures for how to identify, collect, implement, and report the data. The rule tracks the statute and describes, in general terms, procedures to be developed to implement the EMIS information system. The rule, therefore, is constitutionally sound. See, generally, Peachtree Dev. Co. v. Paul (1981), 67 Ohio St.2d 345, 351, 21 O.O.3d 217, 221-222, 423 N.E.2d 1087, 1093.

The guidelines, on the other hand, are a kind of instruction manual showing methods and alternatives to identify, compile, collect and report the data. For example, the statute creates the duty for districts to report the "numbers of students receiving each category of instruction service, * * * such as * * * specialized instruction programs." R.C. 3301.0714(B)(1)(a). On that same subject, the guidelines indicate that the districts may report numbers of students in special instruction in one of three forms--as one self-contained class with one special education subject, as several classes with one special education subject, or as several classes using general subject codes. Guidelines 4-35, 4-36. Because these guidelines merely control the procedure by which the duties in the statute and rule must be performed, they are distinct from the rules in cases such as Condee v. Lindley (1984), 12 Ohio St.3d 90, 91, 12 OBR 79, 80-81, 465 N.E.2d 450, 452; McLean Trucking Co. v. Lindley...