C.K. ex rel. A.K. v. Board of Education of the Westhampton Beach School District

185 F. Supp. 3d 317, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61006, 2016 WL 2625247
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. New York
DecidedMay 9, 2016
Docket15-CV-4743(ADS)(SIL)
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 185 F. Supp. 3d 317 (C.K. ex rel. A.K. v. Board of Education of the Westhampton Beach School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
C.K. ex rel. A.K. v. Board of Education of the Westhampton Beach School District, 185 F. Supp. 3d 317, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61006, 2016 WL 2625247 (E.D.N.Y. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF DECISION & ORDER

SPATT, DISTRICT JUDGE

This case arises from allegations by the Plaintiffs C.K., T.K., and A.K. (collectively, the “Plaintiffs”) that the Defendant the Board of Education of the Westhampton Beach School District (the “WB Board”) denied A.K., an adolescent diagnosed with Down Syndrome, admission into the Westhampton Beach Union Free School District Middle School (the ‘Westhampton Middle School”) based on a pre-existing policy of discrimination against educating severely disabled students.

On December 18, 2015, the Plaintiffs filed an amended complaint seeking a declaratory judgment finding that the WB Board violated A.K.’s rights under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act, 20 U.S.C. § 1400 (the “IDEA”); Title II of the Americans with Disabilities Act 42 U.S.C. § 12132 (the “ADA”); Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 29 U.S.C. § 794(a) (the “Rehabilitation Act”); and the Civil Right Acts, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 (“Section 1983”). The Plaintiffs also seek injunctive relief directing the WB Board to admit A.K. as a seventh grade student in the Westhampton Middle School, as well as attorneys’ fees and costs.

Presently before the Court is a motion pursuant to Federal Rules of Civil Procedure (“Fed.R.Civ.P.” or “Rules”) 12(b)(1) and 12(b)(6) by the WB Board to dismiss the amended complaint in its entirety.

The Court is concerned with the allegations in the amended complaint that schools officials from the Westhampton Union Free School District (Westhamp-ton”) and the WB Board allegedly refused to engage in any meaningful discussions with the Plaintiffs regarding potential accommodations that could meet A.K.’s needs and enable him to attend the Westh-ampton Middle School. However, in the Court’s view, those concerns should first be addressed by local and state educational agencies, not by this Court. Therefore, for the reasons set forth below, the Rule 12(b)(1) motion by the WB Board is grants ed.

I. BACKGROUND

The following facts are drawn from the amended complaint unless otherwise specified.

The Plaintiff A.K. was born on September 7, 2002. He is currently thirteen-years old and has Down Syndrome.

The Plaintiffs C.K. and T.K. are A.K’s parents. A.K. resides with them in the Remsenburg/Speonk School District (“Remsenburg”) located in Suffolk County.

Westhampton is a local educational agency and school district organized under New York law.

As will be discussed in detail below, the IDEA entitles disabled children, such as A.K. to a “free and appropriate public education.” Pursuant to the IDEA and implementing New York statutes, a Committee on Special Education (“CSE”) develops an Individualized Education Program (“IEP”) for every disabled child to ensure that the child receives such an education. By law, the CSE consists of a team which includes the child’s parents, teachers, representatives of the district, and where appropriate, the child.

Remsenburg is an elementary school district which ends at grade six. When children finish sixth grade at Remsenburg, they ordinarily have a choice between attending middle school and high school in [321]*321the Eastport/South Manor School District (“Eastport”) or Westhampton.

To that end, Remsenburg entered into a contract with Westhampton by the terms of which Westhampton agreed that children of school age in grades 7 to 12 who reside in Remsenburg “shall be entitled to be to be taught in [Westhampton].”

A.K. attended elementary school through grade 6 in' Remsenburg. As a result of his disability, A.K. requires “alternate assessments,” which means that he is not assessed in the same manner as typically developing less impaired special needs students. Accordingly, A.K. does not take the same State and district-wide standard assessments - that are administered to general education students and less impaired special needs students. Rather, his academic performance is evaluated using “alternative performance indicators.”

During 2013-2014, when he was in fifth grade, and 2014-2015, when he was in sixth grade, A.K. attended an Integrated Co-Teaching (“ICT”) class at Remsen-burg. These classes were taught by a general education teacher and a special education teacher and included both typically developing students and students with special needs.

Pursuant to his IEP for those years, A.K. also received additional support and services from Remsenburg, including Speech and Language Therapy, Occupational Therapy, Physical Therapy, and a 1:1 teacher’s aide, meaning the teacher’s aide solely focused on him.

Although he is cognitively impaired, A.K. is well-adjusted socially. To that end, he has made friends, attended birthday parties, and is involved in multiple community events and groups, such as little league, with his disabled and typically developing classmates in Remsenburg. His classmates affectionately refer to him as “the Mayor” of his Sixth Grade class because of his beloved status.

The overwhelming majority of A.K.’s typically developing and special needs peers have chosen to attend the Westh-ampton Middle School, not the Eastport Middle School for the 2015 to 2016 school year. As a result, it has always been A.K.’s desire to attend school in Westh-ampton so that he can remain with the majority of his friends from Remsenburg. In addition, C.K. and T.K., A.K.’s parents, also want A.K. to attend school in Westh-ampton, in part, because A.K.’s younger typically developing siblings eventually will choose to attend the Westhampton Middle School when they reach the seventh grade.

However, the amended complaint alleges “upon information and belief’ that the WB Board has for decades refused to educated more seriously impaired, alternatively assessed special needs students, such as the Plaintiff. It further alleges “upon information and belief’ that Westhampton Middle and High Schools have never educated a student with Down Syndrome.

In 2007 and 2008, when A.K. first entered the Remsenburg Elementary School, his parents were allegedly informed by unnamed individuals that A.K. would never be permitted to attend Westhampton schools once he reached the seventh grade because of his disability.

In the 2013-2014 and 2014-2015 school years, A.K.’s parents reached out to Westhampton administrators to start making arrangements for A.K. to attend the Westhampton Middle School beginning in 2015-2016. Allegedly, these officials refused to engage with A.K.’s parents.

On March 30, 2015, the CSE held a meeting during which members from Rem-senburg recommended that due to A.K.’s “instructional and management needs,” [322]*322A.K. required a school that offered a “8:1:1” student-teacher staffing ratio— meaning a class with eight students, one teacher, and one teacher’s aide. (See Seaman Aff., Ex. C, at p. 2.) In response, A.K,’s parents stated their preference was for A.K.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
185 F. Supp. 3d 317, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 61006, 2016 WL 2625247, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ck-ex-rel-ak-v-board-of-education-of-the-westhampton-beach-school-nyed-2016.