Cerra v. Pawling Central School District

427 F.3d 186, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 21020, 2005 WL 2381962
Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit·Decided September 28, 2005·No. Docket No. 04-5370-CV·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

B.D. PARKER, JR., Circuit Judge.

Defendant-Appellant Pawling Central School District (“the District”) appeals from a grant of summary judgment by the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York (Brieant, /.) to Plaintiffs-Appellees Andrea and Thomas Cerra (“the Cerras”). The Cerras sued under the Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (“IDEA” or “the Act”) seeking reimbursement for their learning disabled daughter’s private school tuition. See 20 U.S.C. § 1401 et seq.

The Cerras removed their daughter Kathryn from Pawling High School at the start of the 2002-03 school year after objecting to the District’s proposed plan for special education services for her eleventh-grade year. They enrolled Kathryn in the Landmark School, an out-of-state, private residential school, and requested an impartial due process hearing under IDEA to obtain tuition reimbursement. See 20 U.S.C. § 1415(f). After a lengthy hearing, an Impartial Hearing Officer (“IHO”) denied their claim and a State Review Officer (“SRO”) affirmed the dismissal in a detailed opinion. The Cerras then pursued their claim in district court. Disregarding the findings below, the district court held that the District had violated both the procedural and substantive requirements of IDEA. Accordingly, it granted the Cer-ras summary judgment and awarded them full tuition reimbursement, as well as attorneys’ fees and costs.

On appeal, the District argues that the district court erred in concluding that the District failed to comply with IDEA’S procedural requirements, and in substituting its own judgment for that of the administrative decision-makers on substantive questions of educational methodology and practice. We agree and reverse the district court’s judgment.

BACKGROUND

In January 2001, midway through the school year, the Cerras enrolled Kathryn in Pawling High School, where she completed the ninth grade in the regular education program.1 In June 2001, Kathryn received a psychological evaluation by Karen Arnhold, a school psychologist. Mrs. Arnhold’s report indicated that Kathryn had average overall intelligence, but that she was a “remediated dyslexic” whose “[rjeading comprehension [was] seriously discrepant with grade expectations” and whose “verbal memory [was] mildly disordered.” The report also indicated that she had an attention disorder. Consequently, on June 24, 2001, the District classified Kathryn as learning disabled and developed an Individualized Education Program («IEp”) for hgj. for the summer of 2001, as required by IDEA. See 20 U.S.C. § 1414(d).

At the end of the summer, Kathryn was given an IEP for the 2001-02 school year. [189] It placed her in the school’s regular education program, supplemented by weekly consultant teacher services sessions. See 8 N.Y.C.R.R. § 200.1(m) (defining “consultant teacher services”). These special sessions consisted of group instruction with a student to teacher ratio of up to 5 to 1. The IEP also required “preferential seating” in the classroom and gave Kathryn twice the amount of time to take tests.

On October 23, 2001, the District’s Committee on Special Education (“CSE”) held a meeting with Mrs. Cerra in attendance to discuss and revise Kathryn’s 2001-02 IEP based on a report by Dr. Ronda Facchini, who had conducted a neuropsychological evaluation of Kathryn at her parents’ request. Dr. Facchini’s report concluded that “Kathryn [would] be most appropriately educated in a specialized school for children with learning issues” and noted that she “should be engaged in psychotherapy to aid her emotional development.” The CSE determined that Kathryn could “successfully progress in the regular classroom with modifications and support in skill development,” but amended the 2001-02 IEP to provide one-on-one tutorials two days a week after-school instead of consultant teacher services. The revised IEP also added after-school educational counseling sessions two days a week.

While Kathryn availed herself of these services in November and early December, she did not attend the tutoring or counseling sessions from December 15, 2001 through March 20, 2002.2 Consequently, members of the CSE met with the Cerras in March to develop a more workable program. Without formally amending Kathryn’s IEP, it was decided that Kathryn would stop attending one-on-one tutoring and counseling sessions at the elementary school, and instead would resume consultant teacher services at the high school in a small group setting. Kathryn attended the small-group sessions through most of May, except during a short period when her mother told her not to go because of a dispute with her teacher.

On May 17, 2002, seventeen days before the school year ended, the District’s Director of Special Education, Althea Schep-perly, convened a meeting with Mrs. Cerra and some of Kathryn’s teachers and counselors to make short-term plans to help Kathryn pass the Regents exams. The group discussed Kathryn’s reading comprehension difficulties and arranged for her to be tutored daily during lunch and after-school.

On June 14, 2002, the CSE held its annual review of Kathryn’s educational program, with Mrs. Cerra in attendance. The group first discussed Kathryn’s fourth quarter grades, all of which were passing, but very low. Mrs. Cerra expressed that she believed the poor grades showed that Kathryn had regressed during the year and that the CSE needed “to come up with a better plan.” The group then discussed Kathryn’s 2002-03 IEP. The CSE proposed offering Kathryn one period of resource room instruction and one period of a special reading class each day, both of which would have 5 to 1 student-teacher ratios. See 8 N.Y.C.R.R. § 200.1(rr) (de[190] fining “resource room program”). The CSE also recommended study guides, class notes, an additional set of textbooks, testing modifications, and preferential seating away from social peers. Mrs. Cerra requested that she and her husband be sent Kathryn’s new IEP early in the summer so that they would have an opportunity to review it.

Near the end of the meeting, Kathryn’s consultant teacher, Mrs. Schreiber, provided Mrs. Cerra with a draft copy of the goals and objectives for Kathryn’s proposed 2002-03 IEP. Mrs. Schreiber explained that she was providing the draft so that “when you do get the IEP over the summer, you can check it against what I submitted here today in June.” The draft was apparently coded in a confusing way, leading Mrs. Cerra to say, “[i]t’s all Greek to me.” Mrs. Schreiber explained that the final IEP would not be coded and also reiterated that the draft was only intended to provide an advance copy of the objectives that she could compare with the IEP when she received it.

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Cerra v. Pawling Central School District, 427 F.3d 186, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 21020, 2005 WL 2381962 (2d Cir. 2005).

427 F.3d 186 (Cerra v. Pawling Central School District) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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Cerra v. Pawling Central School District
427 F.3d 186 (Second Circuit, 2005)