C.B. v. Henry County School District

Summary

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed the ruling that Henry County School District’s placement of C.B. in a mild intellectual disability class rather than an interrelated resource class did not violate the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act’s least-restrictive-environment requirement. The court held that this requirement does not govern placement choices between two special education classes and rejected the parents’ evidentiary challenge. It reversed the district court’s mootness determination regarding the Georgia Alternate Assessment and remanded that claim for further proceedings.

Holdings

1. The IDEA's least-restrictive-environment requirement governs placement choices between regular education and special education, not a choice between different types of special-education classes. Because C.B.'s challenge concerned a move from one special-education class to another, it did not present a least-restrictive-environment violation.
2. The parents waived their evidentiary objection to the administrative law judge's reliance on the IEP meeting transcript because they introduced the transcript and failed to object to its use during the hearing.
3. The alternate-assessment claim was not moot because Georgia and federal law require the IEP team to make an alternative-assessment decision annually, leaving a live issue and a legally cognizable interest in the outcome.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the IDEA's least-restrictive-environment requirement applies when a school district moves a student from one special-education class to another rather than from a regular-education class to a special-education class.
2. Whether the administrative law judge improperly relied on the transcript of an IEP meeting when deciding the placement dispute.
3. Whether the challenge to C.B.'s placement on the Georgia Alternate Assessment track was moot.

Disposition

reversed_and_remanded