Long v. Dawson Springs Independent School District

197 F. App'x 427
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 25, 2006
DocketNo. 05-5535
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 197 F. App'x 427 (Long v. Dawson Springs Independent School District) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Long v. Dawson Springs Independent School District, 197 F. App'x 427 (6th Cir. 2006).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiff Holly Long, who as a student in the mid-1990s was denied adequate special educational services by the Dawson [428]*428Springs School District, appeals the district court’s dismissal with prejudice of her claims, under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq. We affirm the ruling of the district court.

I

Plaintiff Holly Long is learning impaired. It is agreed by all parties that she qualifies as a special education student under the IDEA. She enrolled in January 1992, in the Dawson Springs School system in Hopkins County, Kentucky. She was fourteen. Her family became dissatisfied with her education. On September 29, 1994, they sought a due process hearing pursuant to 20 U.S.C. § 1415(f), as implemented in 707 KAR 1:340, § 5-8, on the theory that Dawson Springs was not in compliance with its requirements under the IDEA. Long’s family claimed, inter alia, that the school district had not implemented her individualized education program (“IEP”). The Department of Education appointed a hearing officer and scheduled a hearing for November 15, 1994. The Long family requested that the hearing be cancelled. The Department then dismissed the due process proceeding, and the Longs never asked that it be reopened.

Holly Long withdrew from the Dawson Spring Schools on December 7,1994. Her family moved to Oldham County, where she enrolled in the public schools. She finished her twelfth year of education in 1998.

Her family filed a complaint on May 27, 1998, under the Department of Education’s complaint resolution procedures authorized in Kentucky by KAR 1:340 § 15 (the complaint resolution procedure, or “CRP”). The CRP is an alternative approach to a due process hearing. The Long family’s complaint sought further educational services for Holly Long. It alleged that Dawson Springs failed to implement her IEP between August 1991 and December 1994. The Department investigated and issued eight findings on September 2, 1998. Those findings were, in summary:

1) Dawson Springs did approve policies for the implementation of Holly Long’s IEP. But it did not implement the IEP in a timely fashion. “Therefore, Dawson Springs failed to provide a free and appropriate education to Plaintiff.”
2) The school district had placed Holly Long in the “least restricted environment ... and offered placement alternatives to the parent.”
3) The school district “did not provide post-secondary transition planning for Plaintiff.”
4) The school district “did not implement a system to monitor, collect and report progress data for any of the short-term instructional objectives set out in the IEP’s from 1991 through 1994.” Nor did it “ensure implementation of any IEP’s as written during that period.”
5) Dawson Springs did furnish a computer and printer for use by Holly Long at school, “evaluated [her] for assistive technology devices[,] and offered to provide the recommended assistive technology-”
6) The school district “failed to provide a comprehensive framework or multi-year course of study, failed to determine whether Plaintiff was eligible for a diploma or certificate of completion, and failed to provide a graduation plan.”
7) “Dawson Springs did not make an extended year program available and did not determine whether Plaintiff needed extended school year services.”
[429]*4298) “Plaintiff is entitled to compensatory services for the time she was denied a FAPE [free and appropriate public education], which was approximately three years. Dawson Springs was required to convene an ARC meeting [Admissions and Release Committee, discussed in 707 KAR 1:280],” which is charged with “developing, reviewing, or revising an additional education program (IEP) for a child with a disability.” The school district was obligated to convene the ARC “as soon as it can be conveniently arranged, to discuss compensatory services for the time period Plaintiff was denied FAPE. Dawson Springs was required to submit documentation of this ARC meeting to the Division of Exceptional Children Services within ten days of the meeting.”

Long did not appeal or seek review of the Department’s conclusions, though she had the option to seek further review from the United States Department of Education under 84 C.F.R. § 300.661(d) (repealed in 1999). However, Dawson Springs does appear to have sought reconsideration of the Kentucky Department’s findings. It is unclear what procedural basis the school district relied upon for this petition for reconsideration, but the further review did take place. The Department of Education issued a further opinion on the matter more than a year after its first one. The Department affirmed seven of the eight findings on September 28, 1999. However, with respect to number six, the Department wrote:

The September 2, 1998, report of findings determined the student was not provided FAPE during the period investigated. Therefore, the student is entitled to compensation for educational services not provided. The corrective action plan (“CAP”) requires the district to convene an ARC meeting with the student to determine how, when, where and in what form the services will be provided. The district must submit to this office copies of the ARC meeting invitations as well as conference summary reports which describe the results of any ARC meetings held with the emancipated student by November 30, 1999.

In other words, the Department ordered that further documentation be provided before it could reach any ultimate conclusion on at least this portion of its decision.

Following the order of September 1999, Dawson Springs scheduled an ARC meeting. The Long family requested that a Department representative attend. The family asked also that the meeting be held in Frankfort. The Department declined to send a representative, noting it had no role to play in the ARC. The Long family expressed and exhibited unwillingness to meet with the school district’s officials in the absence of a Departmental representative. The Longs and the school district entered into a relatively involved correspondence. In the course of that correspondence, Dawson Springs agreed to pay for two months of evaluative services by an organization called Career Services, Inc., which appears to be a general purpose employment opportunity entity. One of the services it provides is training assistance (chiefly employment training, apparently) to persons with special educational needs. The Long family indicated a desire to work with Career Services, and Dawson Springs offered to pay for two months of the company’s time.

Dawson Springs sent Career Services a series of inquiries seeking information about Holly Long’s education needs. After some delays, Career Visions answered the school district’s questions, but it is unclear whether Career Visions transmitted a full and satisfactory version of its [430]*430answers to the school district. The reason for this confusion is that, as noted infra,

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197 F. App'x 427, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/long-v-dawson-springs-independent-school-district-ca6-2006.