Verhoeven v. Brunswick School Committee

• Decision Date: 04 August 1999
• Docket Number: No. 98-2348,98-2348
• Citation: 207 F.3d 1
• Parties: (1st Cir. 1999) PAUL VERHOEVEN, AS PARENT AND NEXT FRIEND OF PAUL ("P.J.") VERHOEVEN, A MINOR, DONNA VERHOEVEN, AS PARENT AND NEXT FRIEND OF PAUL ("P.J.") VERHOEVEN, A MINOR, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. BRUNSWICK SCHOOL COMMITTEE, Defendant, Appellee. Heard
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — First Circuit

Page 1

207 F.3d 1 (1st Cir. 1999)

PAUL VERHOEVEN, AS PARENT AND NEXT FRIEND OF PAUL ("P.J.") VERHOEVEN, A MINOR, DONNA VERHOEVEN, AS PARENT AND NEXT FRIEND OF PAUL ("P.J.") VERHOEVEN, A MINOR, Plaintiffs, Appellants, v. BRUNSWICK SCHOOL COMMITTEE, Defendant, Appellee.

No. 98-2348

United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit

Heard August 4, 1999

Decided September 21, 1999

Richard L. O'Meara, with whom Michael D. Traister and Murray, Plumb & Murray were on brief, for appellants.

Amy K. Tchao for appellee.

Before Torruella, Chief Judge, Hill,^* Senior Circuit Judge, and Boudin, Circuit Judge.

TORRUELLA, Chief Judge.

Plaintiffs-appellants Paul and Donna Verhoeven ("the Verhoevens") appeal the district court's denial of their motion for an automatic preliminary injunction compelling defendant-appellee Brunswick School Committee ("Brunswick") to fund their son P.J.'s interim placement in a private school during the pendency of the Verhoevens' challenge to P.J.'s educational placement in the Brunswick, Maine public school system. Although we disagree with the district court's determination that the Verhoevens' motion was moot, we nonetheless affirm the denial of that motion.

BACKGROUND

I. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

Section 1415 of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act ("IDEA"), 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq., requires state and local educational agencies that receive federal assistance for the education of children with disabilities to establish particular procedural safeguards with respect to the provision of a "free appropriate public education" for those children. See 20 U.S.C. § 1415(a). The "free appropriate public education" required by the IDEA is tailored to the unique needs of the child through the implementation of an "individualized education program" ("IEP"). See 20 U.S.C. § 1401(8); 20 U.S.C. § 1414. Each child's IEP must be reviewed annually and revised when appropriate. See 20 U.S.C. § 1414(d)(4).

If the parents of the child object to the child's placement, they are entitled to file a complaint with the educational agency and to have that complaint resolved at "an impartial due process hearing." 20 U.S.C. § 1415(f). Any party aggrieved by the findings and decision resulting from the administrative hearing may then bring a civil action in state or federal court. See 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(2). Section 1415(j) provides that "during the pendency of any proceedings conducted pursuant to this section, unless the State or local educational agency and the parents otherwise agree, the child shall remain in the then-current educational placement of such child." 20 U.S.C. § 1415(j). Because this subsection is designed to preserve the status quo pending resolution of challenge proceedings under the IDEA, it is commonly referred to as the "stay put" provision.

II. Factual and Procedural Background

P.J. Verhoeven has been identified as a student with a disability under federal and Maine special education laws. Because the Verhoevens reside in Brunswick, Maine, the Brunswick School Committee is the local education agency responsible for providing P.J. a free appropriate public education. During the 1996-97 school year, P.J. was a seventh grade student placed under an IEP at Brunswick Junior High School. At the end of the school year, P.J.'s Pupil Evaluation Team ("PET") proposed an eighth grade IEP for P.J. at Brunswick Junior High School for the 1997-98 school year. The Verhoevens, unhappy with P.J.'s similar seventh grade placement, objected and requested an administrative due process hearing to challenge the proposed IEP.

Before the administrative hearing regarding the challenge occurred, Brunswick and the Verhoevens resolved the dispute by entering into a settlement agreement. In that agreement, Brunswick and the Verhoevens agreed to temporarily place P.J. at the Southern Maine Learning Center through the end of the 1997-98 school year. The parties agreed that the PET would evaluate P.J.'s progress at the end of the school year and make a determination at that time regarding P.J.'s placement for the 1998-99 school year. The parties agreed that "[t]he purpose of this temporary placement is to use the 1997-1998 school year to effectively transition P.J. from the junior high school to the high school setting at the Brunswick High School for the 1998-1999 school year." The agreement then expressed the parties' intent: (1) that P.J. would return to the Brunswick public school system for the 1998-99 year, and (2) that the SMLC placement was a temporary placement only. The agreement also provided for costs and attorneys' fees to the Verhoevens and dismissal of their due process challenge to the IEP. P.J.'s PET met on October 2, 1997 and revised his IEP to change his placement for the 1997-98 school year to SMLC.

As contemplated by the agreement, P.J. attended SMLC during the 1997-98 school year, and P.J.'s PET met on June 1, 1998 to determine P.J.'s IEP for the 1998-99 school year. At that meeting, the PET determined that P.J.'s ninth grade placement would be at Brunswick High School. After investigating the placement, the Verhoevens challenged it on July 20, 1998 by requesting an administrative due process hearing. The Maine Department of Education appointed Carol Lenna as the hearing officer and scheduled an administrative hearing for September 8, 1998.

The parties could not agree on where P.J. should be placed during the pendency of the Verhoevens' challenge. The Verhoevens contended that P.J. should "stay put" at SMLC at Brunswick's expense, while Brunswick maintained that P.J. should attend Brunswick High School. The issue was then submitted to the hearing officer for resolution. The Verhoevens now characterize this submission as the pursuit of a reviewable administrative ruling on the interim placement issue, while Brunswick claims that the parties agreed at a pre-hearing conference on August 13, 1998 to accept as final the hearing officer's decision on the interim placement issue. For whatever purpose it was sought, the hearing officer issued her "stay put" decision in a letter dated August 28, 1998, determining that P.J.'s placement pending the outcome of due process proceedings would be Brunswick High School.

Unhappy with this result, the Verhoevens filed a Verified Complaint and Motion for Automatic Preliminary Injunction with the district court. The case was assigned to United States District Judge Gene Carter. In their complaint, the Verhoevens sought relief from the hearing officer's "stay put" decision in the form of a preliminary injunction requiring Brunswick to provide funding for P.J.'s placement at SMLC "pending the completion of due process proceedings" challenging the June 1998 placement decision. Before the district court ruled on the request for a preliminary injunction, the hearing officer issued her administrative due process decision. On October 2, 1998, the hearing officer denied the Verhoevens' challenge to the IEP and ordered P.J. to be placed at Brunswick High School.

On October 14, 1998, Judge Carter denied the Verhoevens' motion for an injunction as moot. The court found that the Verhoevens' entitlement to a "stay put" injunction became moot "by virtue of the hearing officer's decision dated October 2, 1998 deciding all issues submitted to the hearing officer." The court went on to find that the parties agreed to submit the "stay put" issue to the hearing officer for resolution. The court then concluded that, because the Verhoevens agreed to submit that issue to the hearing officer for resolution, the case falls within an exception to the "stay put" provision for when the parties "otherwise agree" on a "stay put" placement. Finally, the court stated that whatever interests the Verhoevens had in seeking review of the hearing officer's placement decision fell outside the parameters of the present complaint and should be pursued by filing a separate action.

On October 30, 1998, the Verhoevens filed the present appeal of the district court's denial of their request for interim injunctive relief. Also on October 30, 1998, the Verhoevens filed a complaint for review of the hearing officer's October 2, 1998 order in the State of Maine Superior Court for Cumberland County. Brunswick subsequently removed the complaint to the United States District Court for the District of Maine, and the case was assigned to Judge Carter.

DISCUSSION

I. The Standard of Review

Due in part to ambiguity in the district court's order, the parties disagree about the appropriate standard of review. The Verhoevens argue that the district court's order denying their request for injunctive relief as moot must be reviewed de novo because the mootness of the request is an issue of law. The Verhoevens also cite two cases for the proposition that review of the denial of a "stay put" injunction is plenary, because the entitlement to an automatic injunction under the "stay put" provision is a question of law. See Woods v. New Jersey Department of Education, 20 IDELR 439, 440 (3d Cir. 1993) (unpublished decision engaging in plenary review of the issue of whether a particular educational placement is the student's "current educational placement" under the "stay put" provision); Leonard v. McKenzie, 869 F.2d 1558, 1564 (D.C. Cir. 1989) (reviewing de novo the denial of a "stay put" injunction on the merits).

Brunswick responds by arguing that the standard of review of a district court's denial of a request for a preliminary injunction is abuse of discretion. See, e.g., Starlight Sugar, Inc. v. Soto, 114 F.3d 330, 331 (1st Cir. 1997) (reviewing issuance of a preliminary injunction under a "deferential" standard, such that the court will not intervene absent a showing that the lower court "misapprehended the law or committed a palpable abuse of discretion"). Brunswick also cites cases of its own for the proposition that the applicable standard of review for "stay put" orders is...