State of Connecticut-Unified School Dist. No. 1 v. State Dept. of Educ.
| Decision Date | 12 August 1997 |
| Docket Number | No. CV950705783,CONNECTICUT-UNIFIED,CV950705783 |
| Citation | 45 Conn.Supp. 57,699 A.2d 1077 |
| Court | Connecticut Superior Court |
| Parties | , 120 Ed. Law Rep. 1095 STATE OFSCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 1 et al. v. STATE DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION et al. -New Britain at Hartford |
Robert F. Vacchelli, Assistant Attorney General, for plaintiff Department of Correction.
Linsley J. Barbato, Assistant Attorney General, for named defendant et al.
Connecticut Legal Services, for defendant Rafael et al.
The named plaintiff (plaintiff) is a special school district established within the department of correction pursuant to General Statutes § 18-99a. It appeals a decision of the defendant state department of education holding the plaintiff liable to provide educational services to the defendant Rafael, 1 a child requiring special education, for a period during which Rafael had been in the custody of the department of correction as a pretrial detainee. The department of education rendered its decision, which contained a number of other orders, pursuant to General Statutes (Rev. to 1995) § 10-76h. The plaintiff's appeal is authorized by subsection (d)(4) of that statute and by General Statutes § 4-183. The court finds in favor of the plaintiff.
Certain essential facts are not in dispute and provide the framework for the court's decision. Rafael is nineteen years old and suffers from a profound learning disability and emotional and social maladjustment. At all relevant times, Rafael has been a child requiring special education within the meaning of General Statutes § 10-76a et seq. and a child with disabilities within the meaning of the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.
Rafael and his mother are residents of Meriden, and Rafael entered the public school system there in 1986. The Meriden board of education identified Rafael as a child requiring special education and placed him in an appropriate program commencing in 1986.
Rafael and his mother left Meriden for Puerto Rico in 1990 and returned to Meriden in 1992. At that time, Meriden officials determined that he was in need of treatment and education in a residential program, but Rafael refused to remain in the program provided for him.
On May 10, 1993, the police arrested Rafael on various felony charges and the court ordered him to be held in jail, in the custody of the department of correction, unless and until he posted the required bond. Rafael remained in custody until January 14, 1994, when he posted bond, a period of nearly eight months. During this period of incarceration, the department neither offered Rafael an individualized special education program nor did he attend any special education classes. During this period, Rafael was transferred between the New Haven and Hartford community correction facilities a total of twenty-seven times in order to meet his court appearance commitments in the New Haven and Hartford courts.
Upon his release from prison, the Meriden board of education resumed control of Rafael's special education program. This program was interrupted, however, on July 5, 1994, when Rafael was arrested on new felony charges. This time he remained in custody until January 20, 1995.
In August, 1994, while Rafael was in custody as a pretrial detainee for the second time, the Meriden board of education's planning and placement team met and developed an individual educational plan for Rafael that prescribed a residential special education program for him upon his release from custody.
During this second period of pretrial detention, Rafael was transferred between correctional institutions eighteen times. Also, twice during this period, Rafael signed statements that he did not want to attend school. Nevertheless, during that period, on October 20, 1994, Rafael's mother wrote the department of education requesting a hearing in accordance with § 10-76h to review Rafael's special education needs.
In November, 1994, the plaintiff commenced a special education program for Rafael while he was in the custody of the department of correction. Although it had conducted some testing, the plaintiff did not convene a planning and placement team meeting. The plaintiff's attempt to do so in December, 1994, was aborted because of the illness of the school district principal and the unavailability of Rafael. There was no other meeting. Without a meeting of the planning and placement team, the plaintiff could not and did not develop a new individual educational plan or modify the most recent Meriden individual education plan. Rafael was enrolled in the plaintiff's school system in November, 1994, however, and attended some classes. Evidence in the administrative record discloses that he attended classes on six out of a possible forty-six school days. There were several reasons for this plainly dismal record, including court appearances, transferring between facilities and Rafael's own recalcitrance.
On January 20, 1995, all of the charges against him were finally resolved and Rafael was placed on probation. A condition of his probation was that he enter a residential treatment and education program operated by the Brown and Sullivan school (Brown and Sullivan) in Suffield. He is presently still a resident of that program.
During the course of the administrative hearing before the state board of education, while Rafael was enrolled as a resident at Brown and Sullivan, the Meriden board agreed to pay for Rafael's special education services at that school until June 30, 1997, when he will have reached the age of twenty-one and will no longer be eligible for such services under applicable statutes.
On March 7, 1995, following the hearing and following Rafael's release from custody, the hearing officer rendered her final decision. The hearing officer identified the principal issue for decision to be whether the plaintiff is liable to Rafael for special education services to compensate him for the denial of any such services that were due him during the periods when he was in the custody of the department of correction as a pretrial detainee. The hearing officer held that the plaintiff is liable for compensatory special education services and that such services must be rendered by the Brown and Sullivan school. Those issues are now before this court.
In her decision, the hearing officer set forth detailed findings of fact and conclusions of law, which may be summarized as follows: (1) during the eight months of Rafael's first period of incarceration, the plaintiff failed to identify Rafael as a child in need of special education; (2) during that period, the plaintiff failed to hold a planning and placement team meeting and to develop an individual educational plan for Rafael; (3) during that period, the plaintiff failed to offer Rafael any educational services; (4) during Rafael's second period of incarceration, the plaintiff failed to hold a planning and placement team meeting concerning his special education needs; (5) during that second period of incarceration, the plaintiff failed to develop an individual educational plan or to modify Meriden's existing individual educational plan to accommodate Rafael's current circumstances; (6) the special education program that the plaintiff did implement for Rafael did not comply with state law requiring minimum school hours per day; (7) federal and state statutes and regulations required the plaintiff to convene a planning and placement team meeting and develop and implement an individual educational plan for Rafael at the beginning of each of his periods of incarceration; and, (8) the Brown and Sullivan school was, as of the date of the hearing officer's decision, providing an appropriate special education program for Rafael.
Based on the aforementioned findings of fact and conclusions of law, the hearing officer concluded further that the plaintiff is liable to Rafael for ten and one-half months of educational services to compensate him for the services that it failed to provide him during the entire first period of his incarceration and during the last two and one-half months of his second period of incarceration.
The hearing officer ordered that the plaintiff provide the compensatory education at the Brown and Sullivan school or at a comparable residential facility. The parties concede that this order means that the plaintiff is held liable for the full cost of Rafael's placement at Brown and Sullivan for ten and one-half months beginning July 1, 1997, when the obligation of the Meriden board of education will expire. At that time, Rafael will have reached the age of twenty-one.
Based on her findings and conclusions, the hearing officer also issued supplementary orders requiring that the plaintiff: (1) hire someone to fill the vacant position in the school district responsible for administering its special education program; (2) establish a "data collection system" to record when pretrial detainees are offered educational services; and (3) develop a procedure to transfer a scheduled planning and placement team meeting, with notice to all participants, to the correctional institution to which the detainee has been transferred. This last order was apparently inspired by the snafu that occurred in Rafael's case in December, 1994, when he was transferred from one correctional institution to another after a planning and placement team meeting had been scheduled at the first institution. The planning and placement team meeting had to be canceled because Rafael and the correctional school principal could not attend.
The hearing officer also ordered the department of education to take certain remedial steps, but that department has not appealed or otherwise objected to those orders and they are not before the court.
The plaintiff appealed the hearing...
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J.B. v. Killingly Bd. of Educ., 3:97 CV 1900(GLG).
...& Supp.1997), amended by 20 U.S.C. §§ 1401(11) & 1414(d) (amended June 4, 1997); see Connecticut-Unified Sch. Dist. No. 1 v. State Dep't of Educ., 45 Conn.Supp. 57, 67, 699 A.2d 1077, 1084 (1997) (stating that the IEP is the "absolutely critical ingredient in the special education program f......