School Bd. of Manatee County, Fla. v. L.H.

• Decision Date: 30 September 2009
• Docket Number: Case No. 8:08-cv-1435-T-33MAP.
• Parties: SCHOOL BOARD OF MANATEE COUNTY, FLORIDA, Plaintiff, v. L.H., a Minor by and through her parents, D.H. and B.H., individually, and as parents and next friends of L.H., Defendants.
• Court: U.S. District Court — Middle District of Florida

Page 1285

666 F.Supp.2d 1285

SCHOOL BOARD OF MANATEE COUNTY, FLORIDA, Plaintiff, v. L.H., a Minor by and through her parents, D.H. and B.H., individually, and as parents and next friends of L.H., Defendants.

Case No. 8:08-cv-1435-T-33MAP.

United States District Court, M.D. Florida, Tampa Division.

September 30, 2009.

COPYRIGHT MATERIAL OMITTED

Robert J. Shapiro, Staff Attorney's Office, John W. Bowen, Bradenton, FL, Thomas M. Gonzalez, Caren Skversky, Gregory Alan Hearing, Thompson, Sizemore, Gonzalez & Hearing, PA, Tampa, FL, for Plaintiff.

Mark S. Kamleiter, Mark S. Kamleiter, Esq., Timothy W. Weber, Battaglia, Ross, Dicus & Wein, PA, St. Petersburg, FL, for Defendants.

ORDER

VIRGINIA M. HERNANDEZ COVINGTON, District Judge.

This cause comes before the Court pursuant to Plaintiff's Motion to Dismiss Counterclaim (Doc. # 17), which was filed on October 22, 2008. On August 24, 2009, the Honorable Mark A. Pizzo, United States Magistrate Judge, issued a Report and Recommendation (Doc. # 44), recommending that the motion be granted as to Counts I and IV (the attorneys' fee claim and the § 1983 claim) and denied in all other respects. On September 8, 2009, Plaintiff filed Objections to Report and Recommendations (Doc. # 45). Thereafter, on September 23, 2009, Defendants filed their Response to Plaintiff's Objection to Report and Recommendation (Doc. # 51).

After conducting a careful and complete review of the findings and recommendations, a district judge may accept, reject or modify the magistrate judge's report and recommendation. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1); Williams v. Wainwright, 681 F.2d 732, 732 (11th Cir.1982), cert. denied, 459 U.S. 1112, 103 S.Ct. 744, 74 L.Ed.2d 964 (1983). In the absence of specific objections, there is no requirement that a district judge review factual findings de novo, Garvey v. Vaughn, 993 F.2d 776, 779 n. 9 (11th Cir.1993), and the court may accept, reject or modify, in whole or in part, the findings and recommendations. 28 U.S.C. § 636(b)(1)(C). The district judge reviews legal conclusions de novo, even in the absence of an objection. See Cooper-Houston v. S. Ry. Co., 37 F.3d 603, 604 (11th Cir.1994); Castro Bobadilla v. Reno, 826 F.Supp. 1428, 1431-32 (S.D.Fla. 1993), aff'd, 28 F.3d 116 (11th Cir.1994).

Upon consideration of the Report and Recommendation of the Magistrate Judge, all objections and responses to objections thereto timely filed by the parties, and upon this Court's independent examination of the file, it is determined that the Magistrate Judge's Report and Recommendation should be adopted.

Accordingly, it is

ORDERED, ADJUDGED, and DECREED:

(1) Judge Pizzo's Report and Recommendation (Doc. # 44) is ADOPTED, CONFIRMED, and APPROVED in all respects and is made a part of this Order for all purposes, including appellate review.

(2) Plaintiff's Motion to Dismiss Counterclaim (Doc. # 17) is GRANTED as to Counts I and IV and DENIED in all other respects. Plaintiff shall file its answer to Defendants' counterclaim by October 20, 2009.

REPORT AND RECOMMENDATION

MARK A. PIZZO, United States Magistrate Judge.

This is an action by the School Board for judicial review of an administrative decision under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA") finding the parents of L.H. have the right to have a privately-retained psychologist conduct inschool observations of their emotionally handicapped child as part of an independent educational evaluation ("IEE").¹ In turn, the parents have leveled counterclaims against the School Board under § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1983, and the Florida Educational Equity Act (doc. 11). The School Board has moved under Rules 12(b) (1) and 12(b)(6) to dismiss these counterclaims on a variety of grounds (doc. 17). For the reasons stated, I find the parents have exhausted their administrative remedies but have failed to state a claim pursuant to 42 U.S.C. § 1983.²

A. Standard of Review

Both sides have incorporated or attached parts of the administrative record to their pleadings. For example, the School Board's complaint and the parents' counterclaims attach or incorporate the ALJ's final administrative order. See doc. 1, Exh. A; doc. 11, Counterclaim, ¶ 45. The parents have appended other parts of the administrative record (including a transcript of the administrative hearing) to their response to the School Board's motion to dismiss. Typically, a court's consideration of matters outside the complaint (or counterclaims) converts a 12(b)(6) motion into a summary judgment motion. Fed.R.Civ.P. 12(d); Garcia v. Copenhaver, Bell & Associates, M.D.'s P.A., 104 F.3d 1256, 1266 n. 11 (11th Cir.1997); Hendrix v. Snow, 170 Fed.Appx. 68, 75 (11th Cir. 2006) (per curiam). That is not the case here. Because the administrative decision is attached as an exhibit to the complaint and incorporated in the counterclaims, that exhibit becomes part of those pleadings for Rule 12(b)(6) purposes. See Fed.R.Civ.P. 10(c); Solis-Ramirez v. U.S. Dep't of Justice, 758 F.2d 1426, 1430 (11th Cir.1985). This same result applies to the administrative record attached to the parents' response because those documents are central to the claims and are undisputed.³ Horsley v. Feldt, 304 F.3d 1125, 1134 (11th Cir.2002); Day v. Taylor, 400 F.3d 1272, 1276 (11th Cir.2005). This result is particularly appropriate in IDEA cases as that scheme expressly provides that courts are to receive the records of the administrative proceedings in a civil action brought by an aggrieved party in a state court or federal district court. 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(2)(C)(i); DeKalb County School Dist. v. J.W.M., 445 F.Supp.2d 1371, 1378 n. 8 (N.D.Ga.2006) ("In an appeal from an administrative hearing in which the hearing record, including the transcript, must be included with the initial pleading seeking review, there can be no genuine dispute as to the authenticity of the hearing transcript." (internal citation omitted)). In short, a Rule 12(b)(6) standard of review applies.⁴

Under the Rule 12(b)(6) standard, the pleadings are construed broadly, and the allegations are viewed in the light most favorable to the non-moving party taking its factual allegations as true and accepting all reasonable inferences therefrom. Watts v. Florida Intern. University, 495 F.3d 1289, 1295 (11th Cir.2007). All that the rules require is that the claimant set forth a "short and plain statement of the claim showing that the pleader is entitled to relief" in order to provide the other party with fair notice of what the claim is and the grounds upon which it rests. Fed. R.Civ.P. 8(a)(2); Bell Atlantic v. Twombly, 550 U.S. 544, 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955, 167 L.Ed.2d 929 (2007). While the counterclaim does not require detailed factual allegations, the defendant is obligated to provide as grounds for entitlement to relief more than labels and conclusions; furthermore, a formulaic recitation of the elements of a cause of action will not do. See Twombly, 550 U.S. at 555, 127 S.Ct. 1955. Factual allegations must be enough to raise a right to relief above the speculative level, on the assumption that all allegations are true. Id. (internal citations omitted). Basically, the counterclaim must set forth enough facts to state a claim for relief that is plausible on its face. See id. at 570, 127 S.Ct. 1955. When, on the basis of a dispositive issue of law, no construction of the factual allegations will support the cause of action, the court may dismiss a complaint, or counterclaim, under Rule 12(b)(6). See Marshall County Bd. of Educ. v. Marshall County Gas Dist., 992 F.2d 1171, 1174 (11th Cir.1993).⁵

B. IDEA framework

The administrative scheme that provides the backdrop to the parties' claims is intricate; hence, an outline of the IDEA's framework offers context for understanding what follows. The IDEA, successor to the Education of the Handicapped Act ("EHA"), provides "an ambitious federal effort to promote the education of handicapped children." M.M. ex rel C.M. v. Sch. Bd. of Miami-Dade County, 437 F.3d 1085, 1094 (11th Cir.2006) (per curiam) (quotation and citation omitted). Two of the primary purposes of the IDEA are "to ensure that all children with disabilities have available to them a free appropriate public education that emphasizes special education and related services designed to meet their unique needs and prepare them for further education, employment, and independent living" and "to ensure that the rights of children with disabilities and parents of such children are protected." 20 U.S.C. § 1400(d)(1)(A) and (B). To further these objectives, the IDEA guarantees that students with a disability receive a free and appropriate public education ("FAPE") through a panoply of special education services, including the right to an individualized education program ("IEP") as defined in 20 U.S.C. § 1414(d).⁶ J.P., 218 Fed.Appx. at 912.

To provide a child with a FAPE, the public agency formulates and develops an IEP during a meeting between the parents and school officials, collectively known as the IEP Team. 20 U.S.C. § 1414(d) (1)(A) and (B). As part of an initial evaluation or any reevaluation, the IEP Team and, where appropriate, other qualified professionals must review existing evaluation data on the child. This data includes: evaluations and information provided by the child's parents; current classroom-based, local, or State assessments; classroom-based observations; and observations by teachers and related services providers. 20 U.S.C. § 1414(c)(1) (A). "During the IEP-development process, parental involvement is critical; indeed, full parental involvement is the purpose of many of the IDEA's procedural requirements." M.M., 437 F.3d at 1095; see also Schaffer ex rel. Schaffer v. Weast, 546 U.S. 49, 53, 126 S.Ct. 528, 163 L.Ed.2d 387 (2005) ("The core of the statute, however is the cooperative process that it establishes between parents and...