E.R.K. Ex Rel. R.K. v. Hawaii Department of Education

728 F.3d 982, 2013 WL 4530914, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 17950
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedAugust 28, 2013
Docket12-16063
StatusPublished
Cited by36 cases

This text of 728 F.3d 982 (E.R.K. Ex Rel. R.K. v. Hawaii Department of Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
E.R.K. Ex Rel. R.K. v. Hawaii Department of Education, 728 F.3d 982, 2013 WL 4530914, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 17950 (9th Cir. 2013).

Opinion

OPINION

D.W. NELSON, Senior Circuit Judge:

Are state-funded high school diploma programs for adults who never graduated from high school a form of “public education”? 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(1)(B)®. We conclude that they are. Accordingly, we hold that a Hawaii statute establishing an age limit on public education violates federal law, and reverse in part the district court’s entry of judgment in favor of the Defendant-Appellee.

Background

In 2010, the Hawaii state legislature enacted a law, dubbed “Act 163,” barring students from attending public school after the last day of the school year in which they turned 20:

No person who is twenty years of age or over on the first instructional day of the school year shall be eligible to attend a public school. If a person reaches twenty years of age after the first instructional day of the school year, the person shall be eligible to attend public school for the full school year.

Haw.Rev.Stat. § 302A-1134(c). The law applies to both general-education students and students who receive special-education *985 services under the Individuals with Disabilities’ Education Act (“IDEA”), 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.

The State of Hawaii Department of Education (“DOE”) administers public education in the state. In addition to conventional public high schools, the agency operates- a network of adult-education schools called the Community Schools for Adults. DOE materials explain that the Community Schools for Adults offer “Adult Secondary Education” in the form of “tuition-free opportunities for adults and out-of-school youth to earn a high school diplomat.]” The DOE offers two diploma programs: the General Education Development (“GED”) program and the Competency Based program (“CB”).

The GED program prepares students to take the GED test, a national standardized high school equivalency exam. Students who achieve adequate scores on the GED test qualify for a high school diploma if they have also completed at least one semester of high school work at either an accredited high school in Hawaii or a Community School for Adults. A high school diploma earned via the GED program permits students to seek admission to the University of Hawaii system.

The CB program is a three-semester life-skills program designed to help students become “(1) Functionally literate adults; (2) Productive and contributing citizens/community members; (3) Effective family members; and (4) Productive workers.” The program emphasizes skills like household finance, civic participation, and health maintenance. To obtain a high school diploma in the CB program, students must complete all five CB courses, earn adequate scores on the various CB exams, and complete at least one “Career Goal,” such as finding a job or completing one credit of work at an accredited post-secondary institution.

The Community Schools for Adults are exempt from the strictures of Act 163. Both the GED and CB programs are open. to any student 18 or older who lacks a high school diploma. 1

These adult education programs have sparked litigation because they do not offer IDEA services to disabled students.. Students who require special-education services to participate in the classroom cannot pursue diplomas in the Community Schools for Adults after aging out of public education under Act 163.. But students without, special needs can and do transition directly from Hawaii public high schools to the Community Schools for Adults. 2

Soon after Act 163 became law, four disabled students and their parents, together with the Hawaii Disability Rights Center, filed a class-action complaint in federal district court. The complaint asserted claims under the IDEA, the Americans with Disabilities Act (“ADA”), and the Rehabilitation Act, as well as an estoppel claim. The IDEA claim alleged that Act 163 violated federal law by denying public education to special-needs students aged 20 to 21 while offering it, in the form of the Community Schools for Adults, to students without special needs. The claims under the ADA and Rehabilitation Act alleged that the DOE’s exclusion of disabled students from adult education constituted disability discrimination under those statutes. The estoppel claim is not at issue in this appeal.

*986 The district court certified a class consisting of all Hawaiian students entitled to special-education services but made ineligible for public education by Act 163. The Plaintiffs and the DOE filed cross-motions for summary judgment. The district court granted summary judgment to the DOE on the estoppel claim, but denied summary judgment to both parties on the remaining claims.

The parties then tried the case in a one-day bench trial. After trial, the district court ruled for the DOE on all three claims at issue. On the IDEA claim, the court held that Act 163 was consistent with federal law because the Community Schools for Adults did “not provide the equivalent of a secondary school education to general education students,” and because the DOE had no “systemic practice of offering the same or equivalent education to general education students who have aged out while eliminating education services for special education students.” On the ADA and Rehabilitation Act claims, the court held that the Plaintiffs had made a prima facie case of disability discrimination, but did not meet their burden of identifying a reasonable accommodation that would allow disabled students to benefit meaningfully from the adult schools. The Plaintiffs 3 timely appealed.

Analysis

1. IDEA claim.

We first must decide whether Act 163 runs afoul of the IDEA, which restricts the power of states to establish age limits on special-education eligibility in certain circumstances. We hold that it does.

The IDEA requires states to provide a “free appropriate public education” to all children with disabilities residing in the state “between the ages of 3 and 21, inclusive];.]” 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(1)(A). As a result, a student’s eligibility for IDEA services ordinarily ends on his twenty-second birthday. See L.A. Unified Sch. Dist. v. Garcia, 669 F.3d 956, 959 (9th Cir.2012). The statute creates an exception to the age limit, however. A state’s duty to provide special education to children with disabilities does not extend to children aged 3 through 5 or 18 through 21 “to the extent that [the duty’s] application to those children would be inconsistent with State law or practice, or the order of any court, respecting the provision of public education to children in those age ranges.” 20 U.S.C.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
728 F.3d 982, 2013 WL 4530914, 2013 U.S. App. LEXIS 17950, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/erk-ex-rel-rk-v-hawaii-department-of-education-ca9-2013.