R.K. v. Board of Education of Scott County

494 F. App'x 589
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedAugust 16, 2012
Docket11-5070, 11-5700
StatusUnpublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 494 F. App'x 589 (R.K. v. Board of Education of Scott County) 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
R.K. v. Board of Education of Scott County, 494 F. App'x 589 (6th Cir. 2012).

Opinion

BOGGS, Circuit Judge.

R.K. is a child with Type 1 diabetes. R.K. was not permitted to attend the neighborhood school, Eastern Elementary School, which lacked a full-time nurse, and was assigned to Anne Mason Elementary, another school in Scott County, which had a full-time nurse on duty. R.K., by his next friends, J.K. and R.K., brought suit in federal court, alleging that the decision to assign R.K. to the non-neighborhood school constituted discrimination in violation of § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, the Americans with Disabilities Act, the Fourteenth Amendment’s due-process and equal-protection clauses, and K.R.S. § 344.130. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the defendants on all counts.

There are two separate appeals in this consolidated case. The first appeal ehal-lenges the district court’s decision granting summary judgment to the Board of Education of Scott County and Superintendent Patricia Putty (11-5070). The second appeal challenges the district court’s denial of R.K’s motion for relief from judgment under Fed.R.Civ.P. 60(b)(2) based on newly discovered evidence that another diabetic student attends a school in Scott County that does not have a nurse on site. (11-5700).

We vacate the judgment of the district court in 11-5070 in part, and remand for further proceedings not inconsistent with this opinion, and dismiss the appeal in 11-5700 because it is moot.

I

A

The facts, as stated by the district court, can be summarized as follows. On June 23, 2008, R.K. — then four years old — was diagnosed with Type 1 diabetes. R.K. requires insulin injections in order to control glucose levels. In March 2009, at an open enrollment, the child’s parents enrolled R.K. at the neighborhood school, Eastern Elementary School (EES), located at 3407 Newtown Pike. R.K.’s parents informed the administration of Eastern Elementary School that R.K. would need insulin injections during the school day. The Board of Education of Scott County Schools told R.K.’s parents that there was not a full-time school nurse on the premises of Eastern Elementary School to give R.K. injections during the day. On August 6, 2009, the Board informed R.K’s parents that their child would have to attend Anne Mason Elementary School (AMES), located at 350 Champion Way, and denied R.K. enrollment at Eastern Elementary School. 1 *592 At the time the complaint was filed on October 20, 2009 — about a month into R.K’s kindergarten year — the Board had not put forth a plan that would allow him to attend Eastern Elementary School. In December 2009, two months after the complaint was filed and four months after the decision was made, R.K’s parents informed the Board that R.K. had an insulin pump that eliminated the need for him to receive daily injections. 2 R.K.’s parents argued that the Board should allow R.K. to attend Eastern Elementary and that someone other than a nurse could be trained to assist the student in monitoring the pump and counting carbohydrates (carbs). The Board continued to deny the parents’ request to transfer R.K. to Eastern Elementary School, asserting that under Kentucky law, only a nurse or other qualified medical official can monitor R.K.’s insulin pump and assist with counting carbs.

Both parties agree that R.K. is not able to use the pump without assistance. The Board believes that this requires him to attend a school with a nurse on site. R.K. argues that he should be allowed to attend the neighborhood school despite the lack of a nurse on duty. The district court granted summary judgment in favor of the Board, finding that R.K. “fails to assert that Defendants’ accommodations for the Child have prevented him from receiving an adequate and beneficial education, participating in extra-curricular activities, field trips, or advancing to the next grade. The only distinction between the two schools, based upon Plaintiffs arguments, is that EES is his neighborhood school and AMES is not.” District Ct. Op. at 4.

B

The factual record in this case is quite underdeveloped, and ultimately unhelpful to resolve the significant legal issues presented. No discovery was undertaken by the parties. 3 On appeal, both parties, as well as amici, have varying accounts of the facts with respect to how the decision was made to assign R.K. to Anne Mason Elementary. R.K.’s fact section has no references to the record as required by Federal Rules of Appellate Procedure 28(a)(7) and 28(e). Further, R.K. attached materials and excerpts from expert reports and publications to his brief that are not part of the record — including expert reports submitted to other courts that were never considered below.

*593 Likewise, the district court based its opinion on a number of factual statements made in the briefs of R.K. and the Board — facts that were not to be found in any evidence. There were no citations to any exhibits in the district court’s opinion to support its account of the facts, and it did not mention some of the few facts that were available. This is reversible error, especially because the paucity of facts in the record shows that genuine issues of material fact are in dispute with respect to how the Board decided to assign R.K. to Anne Mason Elementary, rather than Eastern Elementary, his neighborhood school, and why it denied a subsequent request to transfer him.

The only facts in the record are found in three affidavits and a letter. There are no depositions. First, an affidavit by James A. (Tony) Harrison, a Registered Nurse (RN) and the District Services Manager for the Scott County Schools. Second, an affidavit by J.K., R.K’s father, along with a letter from the Scott County Schools. Third, an affidavit from Leslie Scott, an Assistant Professor of Nursing at the University of Kentucky.

Harrison is a “member of the School District’s § 504 Committee.” He stated that he “reviewed all [of R.K’s] glucose readings obtained during school hours from September 21, 2009 through December 14, 2009.” It is unclear if he was involved in the review of R.K.’s case during the summer of 2009 or if he was involved in the initial decision to assign him to Anne Mason Elementary, which is the only stated subject of R.K’s complaint. Harrison acknowledged that as of September 21, 2009, R.K.’s insulin was injected through an insulin pump. Harrison discussed the procedures that Rose Lewis, the full-time RN at Anne Mason Elementary, had to go through to monitor R.K.’s pump and help him count carbs.

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Bluebook (online)
494 F. App'x 589, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rk-v-board-of-education-of-scott-county-ca6-2012.