Oskowis v. Sedona Oak-Creek Unified School District 9

CourtDistrict Court, D. Arizona
DecidedOctober 9, 2019
Docket3:17-cv-08070
StatusUnknown

This text of Oskowis v. Sedona Oak-Creek Unified School District 9 (Oskowis v. Sedona Oak-Creek Unified School District 9) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Arizona primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oskowis v. Sedona Oak-Creek Unified School District 9, (D. Ariz. 2019).

Opinion

1 WO 2 3 4 5 6 IN THE UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT 7 FOR THE DISTRICT OF ARIZONA 8 9 Matthew Oskowis, No. CV-17-08070-PCT-DWL 10 Plaintiff, ORDER 11 v. 12 Sedona Oak-Creek Unified School District #9, 13 Defendant. 14 15 Pending before the Court is an amended motion for attorneys’ fees filed by 16 Defendant Sedona Oak-Creek Unified School District #9 (“the District”) (Doc. 124) and a

17 motion to review taxation of costs filed by Plaintiff Matthew Oskowis (Doc. 129). For the 18 following reasons, both motions will be granted in part and denied in part.

19 BACKGROUND

20 Oskowis is the father of E.O., a minor diagnosed with infantile autism. Because 21 E.O. suffers from an intellectual disability, he is entitled to a free appropriate public 22 education (“FAPE”) as guaranteed by the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act

23 (“IDEA”), 20 U.S.C. § 1400, et seq. This case arises from three administrative proceedings

24 that were initiated when Oskowis filed due process complaints with the Arizona

25 Department of Education, each arguing that E.O. had been denied a FAPE.

26 Oskowis filed those due process complaints between June 2016 and March 2017, 27 initiating administrative proceedings 16C-DP-066-ADE, 17C-DP-013-ADE, and 17C-DP- 28 053-ADE. In each of those proceedings, the respective administrative law judge (“ALJ”) 1 dismissed Oskowis’s complaint without a hearing, determining that the complaint was 2 frivolous. 3 On April 13, 2017, Oskowis filed this lawsuit. (Doc. 1.) The operative complaint 4 asserted three causes of action, each corresponding to one of the administrative 5 proceedings. (Doc. 17.) Oskowis claimed that the ALJs erred in dismissing his due process 6 complaints. (Id.) 7 On June 22, 2018, the District moved for summary judgment on all three causes of 8 action. (Doc. 68.) 9 On February 19, 2019, the Court granted summary judgment in favor of the District. 10 (Doc. 77.) 11 On August 22, 2019, the District filed an amended motion for attorneys’ fees. (Doc. 12 124.) 13 On August 28, 2019, Oskowis filed a motion to review taxation of costs. (Doc. 14 129). 15 DISCUSSION 16 I. The District’s Motion For Attorneys’ Fees 17 The District seeks attorneys’ fees incurred while defending the action in this Court 18 and while pursuing the pending request for attorneys’ fees. It does not, in contrast, seek 19 any fees arising from its defense of the three administrative proceedings. Nevertheless, 20 because the administrative proceedings are relevant to understanding Oskowis’s causes of 21 action in this case, the Court reviews them below. 22 A. Oskowis’s Causes Of Action 23 1. Cause Of Action I: 17C-DP-013-ADE 24 Cause of Action I arose from administrative proceeding 17C-DP-013-ADE, which 25 Oskowis initiated on September 1, 2016 by filing a due process complaint. (Doc. 17 ¶ 36.) 26 Oskowis argued the District denied E.O. a FAPE by (1) failing “to monitor [E.O.’s] 27 progress against the annual goals & objectives of [his] IEP [individualized education 28 program] [and] their corresponding STOs [short term objectives]” and (2) failing “to

-2- 1 engage the IEP Team to revise the IEP to address the lack of expected progress of [E.O.] 2 toward those STOs.” (Id. ¶ 38.) 3 The ALJ dismissed Oskowis’s due process complaint on March 10, 2017. (Doc. 4 75-1 at 2-6.) The ALJ’s order concluded: “Petitioners’ Complaint fails as a matter of law 5 and should be dismissed as the claims therein are not supported by the IDEA or its 6 regulations. Given the [rejection of the same argument in past proceedings] and the lack 7 of any support in the IDEA or its regulations on this claimed issued, the Petitioners’ instant 8 Complaint is deemed to be frivolous.” (Doc. 75-1 at 6.)1 9 This Court subsequently granted summary judgment in favor of the District on 10 Cause of Action I, determining that the ALJ had properly rejected each of Oskowis’s claims 11 in that proceeding. (Doc. 77.) The Court rejected Oskowis’s first claim—that the District 12 had failed to monitor E.O.’s progress in relation to the objectives set out in his IEP— 13 because, under the IDEA, how progress toward short-term objectives or benchmarks is to 14 be monitored or provided “is left up to the IEP drafters.” (Id. at 9-10.) E.O.’s IEP “only 15 required the District to provide three progress reports during the school year,” which 16 Oskowis acknowledged he received. (Id.) The Court also rejected Oskowis’s second 17 claim, that the District should have amended E.O.’s IEP because E.O. wasn’t meeting his 18 STOs, because “[t]here is no requirement that a school revise an IEP midway through the 19 school year when a student isn’t making progress toward STOs.” (Id. at 10-11.) 20 2. Cause Of Action II: 16C-DP-066-ADE 21 Cause of Action II arose from administrative proceeding 16C-DP-066-ADE, which 22 Oskowis initiated on June 16, 2016 by filing a due process complaint. (Doc. 17 ¶ 57.) 23 Oskowis argued the District denied E.O. a FAPE over three calendar years because: (1) the 24 District didn’t provide a qualified paraprofessional to E.O.; (2) the paraprofessional 25 provided by the District wasn’t adequately supervised by the special education teacher; and 26 27 1 Although the order stated the “Complaint is dismissed as a matter of law for failure to state a claim” (Doc. 75-1 at 6), it also included a footnote suggesting the ALJ was making 28 a “summary judgment determination” rather than “a possible sufficiency determination.” (Doc. 75-1 at 2 n.1.)

-3- 1 (3) the IDEA precluded E.O.’s paraprofessional from providing services within E.O.’s self- 2 contained special education classroom. (Id. ¶ 59; Doc. 69-1 at 42-56.) 3 The District filed a response on June 24, 2016. Included as attachments to the 4 response were “affidavits from two of [E.O.’s] prior special education teachers attesting 5 that they provided direct supervision of the paraprofessional” as well as evidence 6 demonstrating the paraprofessional’s qualifications. (Doc. 75-1 at 11; see also Doc. 69 7 ¶¶ 12-15, 17-20.) 8 During a “prehearing conference,” the ALJ asked Oskowis to address the evidence 9 that had been submitted by the District. Oskowis “acknowledged . . . that [he] had no 10 information or belief to support [his] allegation that the paraprofessional did not meet the 11 requirements . . . to be considered a qualified paraprofessional” and similarly “offered no 12 basis for [his] allegation that the special education teacher did not properly supervise the 13 paraprofessional.” (Doc. 75-1 at 10-11; see also Doc. 69 ¶ 16.) 14 Accordingly, on March 13, 2017, the ALJ issued an order dismissing Oskowis’s 15 complaint for failure to state a claim. (Doc. 75-1 at 9-12.) The order concluded: “Given 16 the baseless assertions presented in the Complaint, Petitioners’ Complaint is deemed 17 frivolous. IT IS ORDERED granting Respondent School District’s Motion to Dismiss the 18 Complaint.” (Id. at 12, emphasis omitted.) 19 This Court granted summary judgment to the District on Cause of Action II, holding 20 that the ALJ had properly dismissed each of Oskowis’s claims in that proceeding. (Doc. 21 77 at 11-13.) First, the Court held that E.O.’s paraprofessional—Ms. Parry—was qualified 22 because she “holds a high school diploma (Doc. 69-2 at 10) and she obtained a passing 23 score on Education Testing Services’ ParaPro Assessment (id. at 12-15),” which means she 24 satisfied the requirements to be deemed “highly qualified” under the NCLB, which was in 25 effect during the three years at issue. (Doc. 77 at 12.) The Court also noted that, at the 26 prehearing conference held by the ALJ in the administrative proceeding, Oskowis admitted 27 “he didn’t have any evidence to show the paraprofessional was unqualified.” (Id., citing 28 Doc. 75-1 at 10-11.)

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Oskowis v. Sedona Oak-Creek Unified School District 9, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oskowis-v-sedona-oak-creek-unified-school-district-9-azd-2019.