Baldessarre v. Monroe-Woodbury Central School District

820 F. Supp. 2d 490, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71454, 2011 WL 2638448
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedJune 29, 2011
DocketCase No. 10-CV-2594 (KMK)
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 820 F. Supp. 2d 490 (Baldessarre v. Monroe-Woodbury Central School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baldessarre v. Monroe-Woodbury Central School District, 820 F. Supp. 2d 490, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71454, 2011 WL 2638448 (S.D.N.Y. 2011).

Opinion

OPINION AND ORDER

KENNETH M. KARAS, District Judge.

Philip and Valentina Baldessarre (collectively, “Plaintiffs”) are the parents of Daniel Baldessarre (“Daniel”), a child in the Monroe-Woodbury Central School [494]*494District (“the District”) with a diagnosed disability.1 Plaintiffs have sued the District, Daniel’s former teacher, Claire Nalick (“Nalick”), and the District’s Director of Pupil Personnel Services, Althea Schepperly (“Schepperly”) (collectively, “Defendants”), asserting claims under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 (“Section 504” or “Rehabilitation Act”), 29 U.S.C. § 701 et seq., and the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), 42 U.S.C. § 12101, et seq. Nalick and Schepperly are sued only in their official capacities. Plaintiffs allege that Defendants discriminated against Daniel because of his disability when he was in kindergarten. Pending before the Court is Defendants’ motion for summary judgment, which the Court is treating as a motion to dismiss for lack of subject matter jurisdiction pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(b)(1), or in the alternative, as a motion for judgment on the pleadings pursuant to Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 12(c). (Dkt. No. 14.)2 Defendants argue that the Amended Complaint should be dismissed because [495]*495Plaintiffs failed to exhaust their administrative remedies under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) and that the claims against Nalick and Schepperly should be dismissed for failure to state a claim. Plaintiffs argue that their claims fall within an exception to the IDEA exhaustion doctrine and thus exhaustion of administrative remedies was not required. Plaintiffs also maintain that their claims against Schepperly are viable, but agree that Nalick should be dismissed from the case. For the reasons stated herein, Defendants’ motion is granted.

I. Background

The Court assumes the following facts, as alleged in the Amended Complaint, to be true for purposes of this motion.

A. Facts

Daniel has been diagnosed with a speech impairment. (Am. Compl. ¶ 8.) When Daniel was two-years old, he was classified as a preschooler with a disability and “placed in a non-integrated 12:1:2 preschool class.” (Id. ¶ 9.)3 Plaintiffs allege that in April 2009, the District declassified Daniel at a Committee on Special Education (“CSE”) meeting, terminated special education and related services, and placed Daniel in a regular classroom for kindergarten beginning in September 2009. (Id. ¶ 10.) According to Plaintiffs, the teaching style of Nalick, Daniel’s kindergarten teacher, was “ineffective, inflexible, and ultimately exacerbated Daniel’s difficulties” with socialization and academics. (Id. ¶ 11.) Plaintiffs claim that instead of convening a CSE to address Daniel’s problems, the District “punished and suspended Daniel on a near daily basis.” (Id. ¶ 12.)

The Amended Complaint does not mention whether an Individualized Education Program (“IEP”) was ever created for Daniel.4 However, the Amended Complaint does indicate that throughout Daniel’s kindergarten year, several CSE meetings were held, and that issues as to the proper classification and placement of Daniel were frequently addressed. Plaintiffs allege that when they requested a [496]*496CSE meeting on October 7, 2009, a subordinate of Schepperly indicated that a meeting could not be held until November and recommended placing Daniel in an Intensive Day Treatment (“IDT”) program in the meantime. (Id. ¶¶ 15-16.) Plaintiffs refused such a placement and allege that they instead contacted the Superintendent of Schools, which resulted in a CSE meeting on October 14, 2009. (Id. ¶ 17.) Plaintiffs allege that at this meeting, Schepperly “unilaterally recommended that Daniel be classified as ‘emotionally disturbed’” and insisted that Daniel should be removed from the school and placed in a segregated IDT or Board of Cooperative Educational Services (“BOCES”) program. (Id. ¶¶ 13, 18.) Plaintiffs rejected both this classification and placement, maintaining that Daniel’s problems were caused by Nalick’s “refus[al] to accommodate Daniel’s disability.” (Id. ¶¶ 14,18.)

During this time period, Plaintiffs allege that Daniel was evaluated by both his developmental pediatrician, Dr. Hugh Bases (“Dr. Bases”), and, at the request of the District, a psychiatrist, Dr. Richard Hahn (“Dr. Hahn”). (Id. ¶¶ 19, 21.) According to Plaintiffs, Dr. Bases concluded that although Daniel still had a speech impairment or articulation disorder and had developed “impulsive and oppositional behaviors,” he “was not emotionally disturbed and should continue to receive services in a regular classroom with a 1:1 aide to assist him.” (Id. ¶¶ 19-20 (emphasis in original).)5 Dr. Hahn’s report noted that Daniel had difficulties with attention, focus, impulsivity, and anxiety, but, according to Plaintiffs, also did not support the emotionally disturbed classification. (Id. ¶ 22.) Plaintiffs again rejected the emotionally disturbed classification and IDT placement on November 25, 2009. (Id. ¶ 23.)

Plaintiffs allege that at the next CSE meeting on December 7, 2009, the District continued to insist that Daniel was emotionally disturbed and should be placed in a segregated BOCES program. (Id. ¶¶ 25-26.) According to Plaintiffs, the District maintained this position despite a “lack of any support for its recommendation” and evidence presented at the meeting that Daniel’s negative behavior in the classroom was caused by being required to undertake occupational therapy (“OT”) tasks such as handwriting. (Id.)6 Plaintiffs allege that when the CSE next convened on December 14, 2009: (1) the principal of the proposed BOCES program stated that he had agreed to conduct an intake of Daniel but had not determined whether the program was appropriate for him; (2) Nalick stated that she had spoken with Daniel’s preschool teacher who indicated that Daniel had experienced similar difficulties with transitioning and tantrums at the beginning of preschool; and (3) Dr. Bases reiterated that Daniel could continue in his current setting with the “provision of necessary related services in speech and OT” and a 1:1 aide to assist him with transition issues. (Id. ¶¶ 27-31.) However, Plaintiffs claim that despite this evidence that Daniel simply “required more support to assist him in succeeding in a mainstream environment, [] Schepperly continued to press for Daniel’s classification as ‘Emotionally Disturbed,’ his removal from his general education class and his placement in an out-of-district segregated class.” (Id. ¶ 32.) Plaintiffs were accompanied at this meeting by their at[497]*497torney, Mary Jo Whateley, who indicated that she would “invoke due process.” (2010-2011 IEP at 2-3.)7

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820 F. Supp. 2d 490, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 71454, 2011 WL 2638448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baldessarre-v-monroe-woodbury-central-school-district-nysd-2011.