I.H. v. Cumberland Valley School District

842 F. Supp. 2d 762, 2012 WL 400686, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15215
CourtDistrict Court, M.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedFebruary 8, 2012
DocketNo. 1:11-cv-00574
StatusPublished
Cited by56 cases

This text of 842 F. Supp. 2d 762 (I.H. v. Cumberland Valley School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, M.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
I.H. v. Cumberland Valley School District, 842 F. Supp. 2d 762, 2012 WL 400686, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15215 (M.D. Pa. 2012).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM & ORDER

JOHN E. JONES III, District Judge.

I. INTRODUCTION

Pending before the Court is the Motion to Dismiss (Doc. 14) of Defendants Cumberland Valley School District and William Harner, Superintendent. For the reasons detailed herein, we shall grant in part and deny in part said Motion.

II. PROCEDURAL HISTORY & STATEMENT OF FACTS

In accordance with the standard of review applicable to a motion to dismiss, the following facts are derived from the Plaintiffs Complaint and are viewed in a light most favorable to the Plaintiff.

Plaintiff I.H. (“Plaintiff’) is a middle school student with disabilities who resides with his grandmother and guardian, D.S. (“Plaintiffs Guardian”), in the Cumberland Valley School District in the Middle District of Pennsylvania. (Doc. 1, ¶ 6). Defendant Cumberland Valley School District (“Defendant School District”) is a public educational agency with its office located at 6746 Carlisle Pike, Mechanicsburg, Pennsylvania 17050. (Id. ¶ 10). Defendant William E. Harner (“Defendant Harner”) is the Superintendent of the Defendant School District, responsible for the administration of educational programs, including special education services, within the Defendant School District. (Id. ¶ 11).

Plaintiff has resided in the Defendant School District since the summer of 2006, when he came to live with his guardian. (Id. ¶ 12). Plaintiff began school in the Defendant School District that year. (Id.). Plaintiffs Guardian noticed that Plaintiff was struggling in school, and on January 19, 2007, Plaintiffs Guardian wrote to Dr. Stephanie Bowen of Sporting Hill Elementary School requesting a complete evaluation of Plaintiff under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“the IDEA”). (Id. ¶ 14). An Initial Evaluation was eventually provided on May 30, 2007, four months after Plaintiffs Guardian wrote to the Defendant School District. (Id. ¶ 16). The report identified Plaintiff as having an “emotional disturbance” and “experiencing academic and behavioral difficulties” and recommended itinerant emotional and written language support. (Id. ¶ 16-17). Plaintiff began to receive special education services at the beginning of the 2007-2008 school year. (Id. ¶ 17).

Plaintiff continued to struggle in school, particularly in math, organization, and reading. (Id. ¶ 18). According to Plaintiffs Guardian, she spent upwards of two and one-half hours per night with Plaintiff on his homework, reporting that he was [766]*766overwhelmed and upset when he had to take a test. (Id). Plaintiffs Guardian continued to provide Plaintiffs teachers with diagnostic information from outside evaluators documenting Plaintiffs diagnosis as Asperger Syndrome and associated social interaction deficits, requesting a reevaluation. (Id ¶ 19). During the 2008-2009 school year, the Defendant School District reevaluated Plaintiff but did not change his eligibility classification or his IEP to reflect the Asperger Syndrome diagnosis or his difficulties in math. (Id ¶ 20). Plaintiffs Guardian continued to provide the school with additional documentation of Plaintiffs Asperger Syndrome and ADHD diagnoses, requesting additional support for Plaintiffs difficulties in math, to no avail. (Id ¶ 21).

In its initial evaluation report in 2006-2007, when Plaintiff was in third grade, the District identified Plaintiff as suffering from “impulsivity” and concluded that a Functional Behavior Analysis (“FBA”) must be conducted. (Id ¶ 26). However, an FBA was not conducted until Plaintiffs fifth grade year. (Id). The FBA was based entirely on the conclusions of Plaintiffs learning support teacher, who did not observe Plaintiff in formal classroom environments and did not have experience or training as a behavioral analyst. (Id ¶¶ 26-27).

At the beginning of the 2008-2009 school year, when Plaintiff was in fifth grade, Plaintiff received itinerant learning support and was pulled out of his regular classes for one or two half-hour sessions with an emotional support teacher per week. (Id ¶ 22). During that year, writing was one of Plaintiffs biggest areas of stress, and he wrote slowly and with difficulty, making math word problems difficult for him. (Id ¶¶ 24-25). Plaintiffs IEP, which had previously lacked any math goals or instruction, was amended to contain a specially-designed instruction that Plaintiff was required to complete only half of the designated math homework per evening. (Id ¶ 25).

In the 2009-2010 school year, after having finished elementary school, Plaintiff moved to Good Hope Middle School, where he was overwhelmed by the number of classes and the amount of information he was expected to quickly process. (Id ¶ 29). Plaintiff continued to struggle with math homework, but for unknown reasons, the Defendant School District removed the instruction to reduce Plaintiffs math homework by half from his IEP. (Id ¶ 30). According to Plaintiffs Guardian, rather than helping him with the concepts, Plaintiffs teachers “mocked him” for failing to “get” the concepts. (Id ¶ 31).

Plaintiff began suffering from a great deal of stress in the fall of his sixth grade year; he began spitting up blood during school, and a gastroenterologist diagnosed his condition as being stress-related, finding that increased stress would cause his esophagus to spasm, causing blood vessels to rupture and Plaintiff to cough up blood. (Id ¶ 32). In November of 2009, overwhelmed by his workload and the stress, Plaintiff confided to his emotional support teacher that he wanted to “end it all,” which prompted an emergency meeting to discuss Plaintiffs condition. (Id ¶ 34). The Defendant School District’s solution was to amend Plaintiffs IEP to provide that he “will not be required to complete homework other than studying for tests.” (Id ¶ 35).

On December 1, 2009, Plaintiffs IEP was changed without the statutorily-required IEP team meeting. (Id ¶ 37). Plaintiffs Guardian consented to the change, which placed Plaintiff in a learning support classroom for the first four periods of each school day, because she was “ready to give up” and “did not know what [767]*767to do to help her grandson.” (Id. at ¶¶ ST-BS). Plaintiffs Guardian was informed that the placement was temporary, at most two weeks, pending a psychiatric evaluation of Plaintiff; in fact, the placement continued for at least four to five weeks. (Id. ¶ 38).

The Defendant School District issued a Reevaluation Report on December 2, 2009, nearly identical to the 2008 report, which identified Plaintiffs school as “Hill Top Academy,” a partial hospitalization program operated by the Capital Area Intermediate Unit (“CAIU”). (Id. ¶ 40). After the report was signed by Plaintiffs Guardian, a paragraph was added without her knowledge or consent which stated that “[Plaintiff] will benefit from consideration” for placement at Hill Top Academy. (Id. ¶41). On December 4, 2009, Plaintiffs IEP was amended so that Plaintiff was to attend school only for half days, in order to address his anxiety. (Id. ¶ 42). Plaintiff was assigned a Therapeutic Support Staff (“TSS”) worker to work with him during those half days, but the Defendant School District “abandoned this support” after only four days. (Id. ¶ 43).

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Bluebook (online)
842 F. Supp. 2d 762, 2012 WL 400686, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 15215, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ih-v-cumberland-valley-school-district-pamd-2012.