School Committee of Franklin v. Commissioner of Educ.

• Decision Date: 05 September 1985
• Citation: 482 N.E.2d 796,395 Mass. 800
• Parties: , 27 Ed. Law Rep. 557 SCHOOL COMMITTEE OF FRANKLIN v. COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION et al. 1 (and a companion case 2 ).
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

Page 796

482 N.E.2d 796

395 Mass. 800, 27 Ed. Law Rep. 557

SCHOOL COMMITTEE OF FRANKLIN v. COMMISSIONER OF EDUCATION et al. ¹

(and a companion case ²).

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Norfolk and Suffolk.

Argued Dec. 6, 1984.

Decided Sept. 5, 1985.

Judith S. Yogman, Asst. Atty. Gen. (Charles E. Walker, Jr., Asst. Atty. Gen., with her) for the Com'r of Educ.

C. Peter R. Gossels, Boston, for the School Committee of Franklin.

Paul G. Murphy, Jamaic Plain, for the parents, submitted a brief.

Before HENNESSEY, C.J., and LIACOS, ABRAMS, LYNCH and O'CONNOR, JJ.

LIACOS, Justice.

These consolidated cases raise the recurring question of responsibility for the payment of the cost of educating in a private school a child with "special needs" as defined in "Chapter 766." See G.L. c. 71B, § 1, as amended by St. 1978, c. 552, § 18, inserted by St. 1972, c. 766, § 11 (effective September 1, 1974). In the first action, the School Committee of Franklin (school committee) challenges a decision in which the Department of Education (department) determined that the school committee has financial responsibility for the education of Kevin B. at a private school, Leland Hall, during the 1974-1975 and 1975-1976 school years. In the second action, Kevin's parents (parents) seek reimbursement from the school committee of tuition paid by them to Leland Hall and for related transportation costs for those two academic years. A judge in the Superior Court ordered dismissal of the latter complaint and the entry of judgment in the action brought by the school committee, declaring that the school committee was not liable to pay any person or agency for the child's cost of education from 1974 to the date of the judgment. On August 17, 1981, judgments entered, and, on appeal, the Appeals Court affirmed. School Comm. of Franklin v. Commissioner of Educ., 17 Mass.App. 683, 462 N.E.2d 338 (1984). We granted the department's request for further appellate review, and we now reverse.

This case has a tortuous and complicated procedural history, reflecting perhaps the novelty of Chapter 766 when the initial decisions were made by the parties. The facts and procedural history of the case have been set forth in great detail by the Appeals Court in School Comm. of Franklin, supra at 684-688, 693, 462 N.E.2d 338, and need not be repeated fully here. We state only those facts essential to our decision.

It is undisputed that the child was a special needs child, within the meaning of Chapter 766, who was enrolled in a remedial program at Leland Hall in the summer of 1974 at the suggestion of a learning disabilities specialist employed by the school committee. Kevin continued at Leland Hall for the school years 1974-1975, 1975-1976, and 1976-1977. In 1977-1978, the parents transferred Kevin to another private school.

The evaluation prepared for Kevin by the Franklin school staff (without the participation of the parents) was submitted to the parents in August, 1974. It was unsatisfactory. Further evaluations ensued, and another plan was sent to the parents in March, 1975. The parents rejected this plan. A hearing was held before a hearing officer of the department on November 20, 1975, the 1974-1975 school year having been concluded. Notice of the hearing officer's decision was not received until April, 1976, near the end of the 1975-1976 school year. The school committee took no action to seek judicial review until December 6, 1976. Thus, the 1974-1975 school year was completed, and the 1975-1976 school year was almost half completed, with Kevin still attending Leland Hall, prior to the filing of the school committee's complaint. The hearing officer had found that neither Leland Hall's total residential setting nor the school committee's plan was appropriate for Kevin's educational needs, and he ordered the school committee to devise a new plan. He concluded that "until Franklin designs an appropriate plan for Kevin ... he may remain at Leland Hall at Franklin's expense." ³

The school committee's initial complaint, filed in December, 1976, sought review under G.L. c. 30A, § 14. Although the complaint requested "declaratory judgment," the school committee sought review on the record of the agency proceedings and recited the grounds for judicial review contained in G.L. c. 30A, § 14(7). In its request for relief, the school committee sought an order that the hearing officer's decision be set aside and that Kevin be placed in the Franklin public schools. The department successfully moved to dismiss the complaint on the ground that the proceeding before the department was adjudicatory and that, under G.L. c. 30A, § 14, a complaint seeking judicial review had to be filed within thirty days of the agency decision. In allowing this motion, the judge gave the school committee leave to file an amended complaint. The amended complaint filed was more particularized in its requests for declaratory relief, but was not different in substance from the original complaint. Both the department and the parents moved for dismissal. Another judge denied these motions, without stating reasons, on March 31, 1977.

In April, 1977, the department moved that the case be remanded so that a hearing officer could make more specific findings. The case was remanded in June, 1977, and a decision by a different hearing officer issued on December 4, 1978. In this first remand decision, the hearing officer found that the school committee had not proposed an adequate, appropriate educational plan for Kevin from September, 1974, through the end of the 1974-1975 school year. He found Leland Hall to be an adequate and appropriate placement for that time period, and ruled that the school committee had fiscal responsibility for Kevin's education for the same period. The hearing officer stated that there was insufficient evidence on the record to decide whether the school committee's liability should continue beyond the end of the 1974-1975 school year.

Thereafter, the parents moved that the case be remanded a second time to determine whether the liability of the school committee established under the first remand decision would continue through the 1978 school year. The motion was granted in April, 1979. In May, 1979, the hearing officer who considered the matter on the first remand took evidence. In July, 1979, a second remand decision issued in which an assessment was made of the school committee's responsibility for the costs of Kevin's education from the 1975-1976 school year through the 1977-1978 school year.

The second remand decision left the first remand decision undisturbed: The school committee was responsible for Kevin's education for the 1974-1975 school year. After taking new evidence, the hearing officer found that until May 20, 1976, the parents had cooperated with the school committee, and that after that date they no longer cooperated. He decided that, even if the parents had cooperated after May 20, 1976, it was unlikely that the school committee could have developed a new educational plan by the end of the 1975-1976 school year. The hearing officer also found that Leland Hall was an adequate and appropriate placement for Kevin through the end of the 1975-1976 school year, and he concluded that the school committee was responsible for the costs of Kevin's tuition at Leland Hall and for his transportation costs for the 1975-1976 school year. He concluded, however, that the school committee was not responsible for the costs of Kevin's education for the school years 1976-1977 and 1977-1978. ⁴

When the cases came before the Superior Court judge for a consolidated hearing on the merits, the issue then was the liability of the school committee to reimburse the parents for the costs of Kevin's education at Leland Hall for the 1974-1975 and 1975-1976 school years. Two weeks before the hearing in the Superior Court, the school committee filed a motion to present additional evidence, citing G.L. c. 30A, § 14(6), G.L. c. 71B, § 3, and 20 U.S.C. § 1415(e)(2). The trial judge allowed the motion over the opposition of the department.

The judge determined that the Federal standards and procedures of 20 U.S.C. § 1415(e)(2) preempt State law standards and procedures. He further ruled that "[s]ilent though [20 U.S.C. § 1415(e)(2) ] and its legislative history may be on the question of retroactivity, ... the statute governs judicial review of ... [the first remand decision] that Leland Hall was a suitable alternative private placement." Thus, the trial judge applied the "preponderance of the evidence" test of 20 U.S.C. § 1415(e)(2) rather than the "substantial evidence" test of G.L. c. 30A, § 14. Basing his decision largely on the new evidence received, the trial judge found that Leland Hall was at no time an appropriate placement for Kevin and that the school committee need not reimburse the parents for the costs of sending Kevin to Leland Hall from 1974 on.

We hold that the school committee's complaint, filed in December, 1976, was untimely. Thus, the hearing officer's initial determination of the school committee's liability for the school year 1974-1975 is final. Accordingly, it was error to dismiss the complaint of the parents, to the extent that it sought reimbursement for the 1974-1975 school year. We order entry of judgment on the parents' complaint as to the school year 1974-1975.

We consider the disposition of the appeal which relates to the 1975-1976 school year. As we have stated, the second remand order issued in the context of Superior Court proceedings which should have been dismissed as untimely. However, a challenge to the decision regarding the 1975-1976 school year could have been the basis for a new action. Since this school year came in issue in these proceedings largely because of the motions to remand filed by the department and the parents, it would be unjust to foreclose judicial review to the school committee in this regard. Thus, we...