R.P.-K. v. Department of Education

272 F.R.D. 541, 79 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 65, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26600
CourtDistrict Court, D. Hawaii
DecidedMarch 15, 2011
DocketCivil No. 10-00436 DAE/KSC
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 272 F.R.D. 541 (R.P.-K. v. Department of Education) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Hawaii primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
R.P.-K. v. Department of Education, 272 F.R.D. 541, 79 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 65, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26600 (D. Haw. 2011).

Opinion

ORDER GRANTING IN PART AND DENYING IN PART PLAINTIFFS’ MOTION FOR CLASS CERTIFICATION

DAVID ALAN EZRA, District Judge.

On March 14, 2011, the Court heard Plaintiffs’ Motion for Class Certification (“Motion”). Jason H. Kim, Esq., and John P. Dellera, Esq., appeared at the hearing on behalf of Plaintiffs, Deputy Attorney General Steve K. Miyasaka appeared at the hearing on behalf of Defendant Department of Education (“Defendant” or “DOE”). After reviewing the motion as well as the supporting and opposing memoranda, the Court GRANTS IN PART and DENIES IN PART Plaintiffs Motion for Class Certification (Doe. # 15). Specifically, the class is certified with R.P.-K., R.T.D., and the Hawaii Disability Rights Center as the class representatives. C.B. and B.P., however, are ineligible to be class members or representatives and are hereby DISMISSED from the action.

BACKGROUND

The named Plaintiffs in this case — excluding Plaintiff Hawaii Disability Rights Center (“HDRC”) — are all disabled individuals who are or had been eligible for special education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”). In this litigation Plaintiffs are challenging the validity of Act 163 of the Session Laws of Hawaii for 2010 (“Act 163”) arguing it is an invalid attempt at circumventing this Court’s holdings in B.T. v. Dep’t of Educ., 637 F.Supp.2d 856 (D.Haw. 2009) (hereinafter “B.T. I”) and B.T. v. Dep’t of Educ., CV. Nos. 08-00356 DAE-BMK, 09-00059 DAE-BMK, 2009 WL 4884447 (D.Haw. Dec. 17, 2009) (hereinafter “B.T. II ”). At present, the issue before the Court is the Plaintiffs’ Motion to Certify the following class:

All individuals residing in the State of Hawaii who over the age of 20 on or before the first day of the school year (or who will imminently be over the age of 20 on that date) but under the age of 22 who are entitled to receive special education and related services from Defendant the Hawaii Department of Education under the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act.

(“Mot.,” Doe. # 15 at 3.)

I. B.T. and Act 163

The IDEA requires each state provide a free appropriate public education (“FAPE”) to “all children with disabilities ... between the ages of 3 and 21, inclusive____” 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a). This Court determined that federal eligibility for special education and related services therefore ends when a student becomes twenty-two. B.T. I, 637 F.Supp.2d at 863-64 n. 9. States may impose different age limitations, however, provided those same limitations are applied to the public general education students as well. 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(1)(B) (“The obligation to make [FAPE] available to all children with disabilities does not apply with respect to children ... aged 3 through 5 and 18 through 21 in a State to the extent that its application to those children would be inconsistent with State law or practice____”); see also B.T. I, 637 F.Supp.2d at 863 (“The State is only allowed to deviate from the requirements of the IDEA if there is a clear State law that says otherwise.”).

In B.T., Plaintiff B.T. was a severely autistic twenty year old. B.T. I, 637 F.Supp.2d at 859. He argued that extending a FAPE to the age of twenty-two was consistent with Hawaii law and that the Department of Education’s (“DOE”) policy of terminating special education services at the age of twenty was invalid given the terms of the IDEA. See id. at 862-65. The Court agreed. Specifically [544]*544the Court focused on the “nature of the practice of Hawaii’s schools toward students 20 years or older” and found that “Defendant has approved every single overage general education student and barred almost every single overage special education student.” Id. at 865. Accordingly the law violated the IDEA and “Hawaii [had denied] these students a meaningful education.” Id. at 865-66. Hawaii therefore was “enjoined from implementing a per se rule denying special education services based solely on [the students] attaining the age of 20.” Id. at 866. The Court subsequently granted summary judgment, in part, for Plaintiff B.T. B.T. II, 2009 WL 4884447, at *9. The State of Hawaii did not appeal this Court’s ruling.

Since then, however, the State of Hawaii has passed Act 163 which amended Haw.Rev. Stat. § 302A-1134(c) to impose a twenty year age limit on all admissions to public high school. See Haw.Rev.Stat. § 302A-1134(c). Specifically, the statute states:

No person who is twenty years of age or over on the first instructional day of the school year shall be eligible to attend a public school. If a person reaches twenty years of age after the first instructional day of the school year, the person shall be eligible to attend public school for the full school year.

Id. Plaintiffs complain that Act 163 is an impermissible attempt to circumvent this Court’s holding in B.T. I. (Mot. at 5-7.) Specifically, Plaintiffs assert that “[ajlthough Act 163 purports to impose an age limit of 20 for attendance at a public school ..., the DOE continues to provide a public education to students over the age of 20 through the CB (competency-based) and GED (General Education Development) high school equivalency programs.” (Id. at 5.) Special education, according to Plaintiffs, should therefore continue until age twenty-two, notwithstanding Act 163. (See id. at 7.)1

II. Plaintiffs

A. R.P.-K.

R.P.-K. was born on October 20, 1989 and is twenty-one years old. (“Opp’n,” Doe. # 24, Ex. 1 at 2.) R.P.-K. was IDEA-eligible and received special education and related services while in Defendants’ K-12 education system. (See id.) R.P.-K.’s mother, C.K., twice requested that he continue to receive special education services beyond the 2009-10 school year. (Mot., C.K. Decl. ¶¶ 4 — 5.) On July 1, 2010, Act 163 took effect. (See id., Ex. A.) Subsequently an IEP meeting for R.P.-K. was held on July 26, 2010 where it was determined that R.P.-K. was no longer eligible to attend public school. (Opp’n, Ex. 1 at 3.) Defendant issued a Prior Written Notice (“PWN”) on August 6, 2010, stating that R.P.-K. was no longer eligible to attend public school because of his age. (Id.)

C.K. filed a Request for Due Process hearing and on October 25, 2010, the Office of Administrate Hearings, Department of Commerce and Consumer Affairs issued an Order awarding judgment for Defendant. (Id. at 6-7.) The Hearings Officer specifically found that Act 163 precluded R.P.-K.’s right to educational services until after the age of twenty. (Id. at 7.)

R.P.-K. filed a complaint appealing the decision with this Court on November 5, 2010. The appeal is currently pending before Judge Leslie E. Kobayashi. (See 1:10-cv-00644-LEK-KSC.)

B. R.T.D.

R.T.D.

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Bluebook (online)
272 F.R.D. 541, 79 Fed. R. Serv. 3d 65, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26600, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rp-k-v-department-of-education-hid-2011.