State v. Cochran, 1
| Decision Date | 15 November 1988 |
| Docket Number | No. 1,No. 88-89,1,88-89 |
| Citation | 764 P.2d 1037 |
| Parties | 50 Ed. Law Rep. 589 STATE of Wyoming, Wyoming State Board of Education, Appellant (Defendant), Goshen County School District, (Defendant), v. Glendal COCHRAN and Betty Cochran, husband and wife, as next friends of Michael Cochran, Appellees (Plaintiffs). |
| Court | Wyoming Supreme Court |
Joseph B. Meyer, Atty. Gen., and Rowena L. Heckert, Sr. Asst. Atty. Gen., for appellant.
John H. Rivera of the Protection & Advocacy System, Inc., Cheyenne, for appellees.
Before CARDINE, C.J., and THOMAS, URBIGKIT, MACY and GOLDEN, JJ.
This case is the second of three current appeals which tests entitlement to governmentally funded free appropriate public education for a handicapped person during the period between his twenty-first and twenty-second birthdays (twenty-second year education). 1 Consequently, the application of the Cooperative Education Plan created by federal legislation, Education for All Handicapped Children Act of 1975 (EHA), 20 U.S.C. §§ 1400, et seq. (1976 ed. & Supp. IV 1986), the Wyoming Constitution and educational statutes are involved.
We find the issues presented on appeal to be generally moot since the domiciliary-vocational-educational services have by now been provided to appellee (Michael Cochran) for the additional year. However, remand is necessary to determine how the cost of the assistance should be divided between the local school district and the state agency.
Michael Cochran, injured in an automobile accident at age fifteen, has since pursued his education burdened with the handicap of resulting permanent disabilities. As he finished his twenty-first year of age, he was resident in an educational and vocational activity in the Goodwill Industries, Inc. covered workshop program in Cheyenne, Wyoming. This litigation developed as a claim for his entitlement to continued maintenance and tuition costs past his twenty-first birthday pursuant to the state handicapped education plan developed from the agreement process of federal law (EHA).
The dispute between Michael Cochran, Goshen County School District No. 1 (School District) and the Wyoming State Board of Education (State Board) first developed in the appointment and resultant hearing before a designated hearing officer who, contrary to the decision of the hearing officer in Natrona County School District No. 1 v. Ryan, 764 P.2d 1019 (Wyo.1988), determined that the state obligation to fund educational services ended at the twenty-first birthday. Michael Cochran's parents chose for their appellate strategy a state court declaratory judgment in the Eighth Judicial District to seek reversal of the hearing officer's conclusion instead of the administrative proceeding petition for review.
After the filing, the district court first attempted a direct certification process to this court pursuant to W.R.A.P. 12.09, which was remanded on the basis that a decision in declaratory judgment by the district court was required before appeal could be maintained. Following remand and hearing, the trial court in declaratory judgment, reversed the hearing officer by determining that the State had contracted for the additional year's educational responsibility through the state plan and adopted regulation. Additionally, the district court held that the costs should be "fully funded and provided through the State Board of Education," which should hold the School District harmless "from any funding obligation whatsoever to Michael Cochran."
During the course of the administrative hearing, initial aborted appeal, subsequent district court proceedings, and present appeal, Michael Cochran has received the educational services for the additional year pursuant to the provisions of federal law and the...
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Natrona County School Dist. No. 1 v. Ryan
...services * * * through age twenty-two." In a comparable case now also pending before this court on appeal, Wyoming State Board of Education v. Cochran, 764 P.2d 1037 (Wyo.1988), the hearing officer reached a directly opposite conclusion. However, the district court in the succeeding declara......
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Natrona County School Dist. No. 1 v. McKnight
...expenses. This court will follow Natrona County School District No. 1 v. Ryan, 764 P.2d 1019 (Wyo.1988) and Wyoming State Board of Education v. Cochran, 764 P.2d 1037 (Wyo.1988) in determining that entitlement to education ends at the twenty-first birthday, and reverse the bad faith decisio......
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Foster v. Wicklund, 88-279
...in the three handicapped children education cases, Natrona County School Dist. No. 1 v. McKnight, 764 P.2d 1039 (Wyo.1988); State v. Cochran, 764 P.2d 1037 (Wyo.1988); and Natrona County School Dist. No. 1 v. Ryan, 764 P.2d 1019 (Wyo.1988). See also Honig v. Doe, 484 U.S. 305, 108 S.Ct. 592......
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Oukrop v. Wyoming Bd. of Dental Examiners, 88-145
...with him on that point and restate that this court does not issue advisory opinions on moot issues. See Goshen County School District No. 1 v. Cochran, 764 P.2d 1037 (Wyo.1988). Oukrop's other issues amount to a challenge that the Board somehow denied him due process when the district court......