JB v. Oakland Unified School District

CourtDistrict Court, N.D. California
DecidedDecember 10, 2022
Docket3:21-cv-08521
StatusUnknown

This text of JB v. Oakland Unified School District (JB v. Oakland Unified School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. California primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
JB v. Oakland Unified School District, (N.D. Cal. 2022).

Opinion

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 9 NORTHERN DISTRICT OF CALIFORNIA 10 San Francisco Division 11 J.B., et al., Case No. 21-cv-08521-LB

12 Plaintiffs, ORDER GRANTING MOTION TO 13 v. DISMISS

14 OAKLAND UNIFIED SCHOOL Re: ECF No. 20 DISTRICT, et al., 15 Defendants. 16 17 INTRODUCTION 18 In this action, the plaintiff challenges an administrative decision to dismiss the plaintiff’s 19 claims under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).1 The underlying claim 20 against the district concerns the district’s alleged failure to provide a free appropriate public 21 education or FAPE to the plaintiff’s son under the IDEA between 2018 and 2021.2 An 22 administrative law judge (ALJ) at the California Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) 23 dismissed the complaint for the failure to prosecute based on the plaintiff’s counsel’s failure to 24 25

26 1 Compl. – ECF No. 1 at 1–2 (¶ 1). Citations refer to material in the Electronic Case File (ECF); 27 pinpoint citations are to the ECF-generated page numbers at the top of documents. 2 1 timely upload evidentiary exhibits in advance of a due-process hearing.3 The defendants moved to 2 dismiss the case based on the lack of subject-matter jurisdiction and the plaintiff’s failure to 3 exhaust administrative remedies or state a claim.4 4 The court dismisses the plaintiff’s complaint. The court has subject-matter jurisdiction because 5 the plaintiff’s claims arise under the IDEA, and the complaint follows a final administrative 6 decision. But the plaintiff has not exhausted her administrative remedies under the IDEA. The 7 administrative law judge dismissed the administrative complaint without prejudice and before 8 reaching the merits of the claim or developing a factual record. Thus, the court dismisses the 9 complaint without prejudice. 10 11 STATEMENT 12 The plaintiff brought this action on behalf of herself and her son who is fourteen years old and 13 has learning disabilities, including attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and dyslexia.5 14 He reads at a first-grade level.6 In 2013, the plaintiff, who had recently been released from jail and 15 experienced homelessness, enrolled her son at Thousand Oaks Elementary School in the Berkeley 16 Unified School District.7 17 After an initial IEP in 2013, the plaintiff’s son was placed at “Building Blocks, a therapeutic 18 nonpublic Preschool, K-1 program run by Seneca in Oakland.”8 Nonetheless, by 2016, the 19 plaintiff’s son was still “far below average in core academic skills.”9 The plaintiff and the 20 Berkeley Unified School District both filed administrative complaints in 2016 concerning disputes 21 22

23 3 Compl. – ECF No. 1 at 33 (¶ 149); Order, Cal. Office of Admin. Hr’gs (OAH), Case No. 2020120240 (Aug. 4, 2021), Ex. A, Mishook Decl. – ECF No. 20-1 at 5–13. 24 4 Mot. – ECF No. 20 at 11–15. 25 5 Compl. – ECF No. 1 at 5 (¶¶ 12, 14). 26 6 Id. at (¶¶ 12, 15). 7 Id. at 6 (¶¶ 16). 27 8 Id. at 7 (¶ 24). 1 over the plaintiff’s son’s educational needs.10 The parties settled these issues in 2016.11 The 2 plaintiff alleges that the Berkeley Unified School District generally failed to comply with the 3 settlement agreement and filed a “compliance complaint with the CDE [California Department of 4 Education]” in 2017.12 The Department ordered the Berkeley Unified School District to 5 implement several corrective actions, and in 2018, the district placed the plaintiff’s son at “Maya 6 Angelou Academy in Oakland, a nonpublic therapeutic elementary school run by Seneca.”13 7 In 2017 and again in 2019, the Berkeley Unified School District advised the plaintiff that she 8 should enroll her son in the Oakland Unified School District because the plaintiff lived in Oakland 9 and “no longer lived within the boundaries of” the Berkeley Unified School District.14 In 2019, the 10 plaintiff filed an administrative complaint to establish whether the Berkeley Unified School 11 District or the Oakland Unified School District was responsible for her son’s education.15 The 12 Oakland Unified School District filed an administrative complaint on the same issue.16 The 13 Oakland Unified School District administrative complaint was dismissed after the district moved 14 to dismiss this complaint.17 The plaintiff settled the administrative complaint against the Berkeley 15 Unified School District.18 16 In 2020, the plaintiff eventually accepted an offer from the Oakland Unified School District to 17 enroll her son in the James Baldwin Academy.19 Disputes over her son’s education have continued 18 since he enrolled in James Baldwin Academy.20 19

20 10 Id. at 9–10 (¶¶ 37–40). 21 11 Id. at 10 (¶ 41). 12 Id. at 11 (¶ 45). 22 13 Id. at 11 (¶¶ 47–48). 23 14 Id. at 11 (¶ 46), 13 (¶ 62). 24 15 Id. at 19 (¶ 90). 16 Id. 25 17 Id. at 21–22 (¶¶ 96–97). 26 18 Id. at 22 (¶ 105). 27 19 Id. at 23–25 (¶¶ 111–120). 20 1 The plaintiff filed the administrative complaint that is the subject of this action on December 2 7, 2021.21 The issues in the complaint concerned whether the Oakland Unified School District 3 provided a free appropriate public education or FAPE between 2018 and 2021.22 The ALJ 4 dismissed issues related to alleged interference with the attorney-client relationship.23 A due- 5 process hearing was set for June 22, 2021 on the remaining issues and was eventually continued to 6 August 3, 2021.24 The plaintiff’s counsel failed to timely upload evidence in advance of the due- 7 process hearing.25 (At the December 8, 2022, hearing, she explained that technical issues made 8 this excusable error.) The ALJ dismissed the administrative complaint for failure to prosecute.26 9 The plaintiff subsequently filed this action under the IDEA claiming that the ALJ erred by (1) 10 dismissing the case for lack of prosecution and (2) finding that the Oakland Unified School 11 District did not interfere with the student’s attorney-client relationship.27 The defendants moved to 12 dismiss for lack of subject-matter jurisdiction under Rule 12(b)(1) and for the failure to exhaust 13 administrative remedies or state a claim under Rule 12(b)(6).28 14 All parties consented to magistrate-judge jurisdiction under 28 U.S.C. § 636.29 The court held 15 a hearing on October 13, 2022. 16 17 18 19 20 21 Id. at 26 (¶¶ 121, 123); Order, Cal. Office of Admin. Hr’gs (OAH), Case No. 2020120240 (Aug. 4, 21 2021), Ex. A, Mishook Decl. – ECF No. 20-1 at 5–13; Order, Cal. Office of Admin. Hr’gs (OAH), Case No. 2020120240 (June 14, 2021), Ex. B, Mishook Decl. – ECF No. 20-1 at 15–32. 22 22 Order, Cal. Office of Admin. Hr’gs (OAH), Case No. 2020120240 (June 14, 2021), Ex. B, Mishook 23 Decl. – ECF No. 20-1 at 17–18. 23 Id. at 20. 24 24 Compl. – ECF No. 1 at 29 (¶ 133), 30 (¶ 138). 25 25 Id. at 30 (¶¶ 138–148). 26 26 Id. at 33 (¶ 149). 27 Id. at 33–34 (¶¶ 152–159). 27 28 Mot. – ECF No. 20 at 11–15. 1 STANDARDS 2 1. Subject Matter Jurisdiction – Rule 12(b)(1) 3 A complaint must contain a short and plain statement of the grounds for the court’s 4 jurisdiction. Fed. R. Civ. P. 8(a)(1). The plaintiff has the burden of establishing jurisdiction. 5 Kokkonen v. Guardian Life Ins. Co. of Am., 511 U.S. 375, 377 (1994); Farmers Ins. Exch. v. 6 Portage La Prairie Mut. Ins. Co., 907 F.2d 911, 912 (9th Cir. 1990). 7 A defendant’s Rule 12(b)(1) jurisdictional attack can be facial or factual. White v. Lee, 227 F.3d 8 1214, 1242 (9th Cir. 2000).

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Bluebook (online)
JB v. Oakland Unified School District, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jb-v-oakland-unified-school-district-cand-2022.