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ISD Loses Special-Ed Attorney Fee Appeal
Upheld: A federal judge’s order that an ISD must pay the parents of a special-ed student $70,000 in attorney fees. Krawietz, et al. v. Galveston ISD, No. 17-40461. Issued Aug. 17.
A three-judge Fifth Circuit panel, in this decision, concluded that a special-ed litigant does not have to get all relief that is originally requested to be declared the “prevailing party” who is entitled to attorney fees.
The dispute involves “Ashley,” who had enrolled at an early age in GISD, and was provided special-ed services due to behavioral issues and other disorders — and whose parents withdrew her after a few years to homeschool her before re-enrolling her in GISD in ninth grade.
Could Not Find the Records
Although her parents informed GISD that Ashley had received special-ed services when she was a student there years before, the district could not find the records and assumed (incorrectly) that she had been dismissed from special-ed services.
Eventually, due to a series of misbehavior incidents by the student in ninth grade, GISD (with the mother’s consent) conducted a full individual evaluation (FIE) of Ashley, resulting in a conclusion that she was eligible for special-ed services. At about the same time, her parents requested a due process hearing before a special-ed hearing officer.
The parents asked the special-ed hearing officer to require GISD to identify their child as a student with a disability eligible for special-ed services, that the district pay for (or reimburse the parents for) the cost of private residential placement, and for other appropriate relief.
The hearing officer concluded that Ashley was eligible for special-ed services under the federal Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) — and that GISD denied her a free appropriate public education (FAPE) by failing to timely fulfill its Child Find duties. The hearing officer denied the parents’ request for residential placement — but ordered various other relief, including by requiring GISD to design an individualized education plan (IEP) for Ashley that included all the recommendations arising from the previously conducted FIE.
The subsequent administrative and judicial proceedings resulted in rulings that Ashley was the prevailing party and that the district must pay attorney and related fees on findings that GISD deprived Ashley of a FAPE by failing to fulfill its Child Find duties in a timely manner by delaying, by six months, performing an evaluation and taking other steps that ultimately concluded that the student was eligible for special-ed services.
Settlement Rejected
GISD claimed that Ashley was not the prevailing party, and rejected a settlement offer from Ashley’s lawyer to reduce the attorney fee claim by 15 percent.
Ashley’s mother sued, resulting in this Fifth Circuit decision that Ashley was the prevailing party who was due attorney fees on her behalf because she had received some of the relief her parents had originally requested from the special-ed hearing officer — relief that was aimed to ensure that Ashley received a FAPE.