Judge Arianna Freeman, nominated by President Biden to the Third Circuit, wrote a unanimous decision affirming a district court finding that a school district had failed to provide an appropriate education to a student with disabilities for several years and awarded $128,635 in compensatory education relief. The August 2024 decision was in Upper Darby School Dist. v KW.
What happened in this case?
KW is a child with disabilities who “needs significant support to learn” and is enrolled in the Upper Darby school district in Pennsylvania. Because of his disabilities, he has “been placed in private schools with public funding” since 2019.
Beginning in 2020-21, KW was enrolled at the YALE school for students with disabilities in Philadelphia. Both before the school year and after it began, two independent evaluations confirmed he had significant “behavioral challenges” and recommended that he receive a Positive Behavioral Support Plan (PBSP) based on a careful behavioral assessment. But Upper Darby refused to accept this recommendation.
As a district court later found, without further help and intervention, KW’s behavior “deteriorated” significantly in 2021-22. In November 2021, YALE “disenrolled” KW. Upper Darby agreed to provide tutoring to KW as a search went on for a satisfactory school that would accept him, but the tutoring was “inconsistent” and no such school was found by the end of February 2022.
In March, 2022, KW’s mother filed an administrative complaint contending that the district had failed to meet its federal statutory obligation to provide a Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) to KW starting in 2020-21. The case was assigned to an administrative hearing officer, who found that KW had received a FAPE in 2020-21 and part of 2021-22, but that the district had failed to meet its obligations starting in April 2022 and awarded him compensatory education services for the remainder of that school year. Both sides appealed to a federal district court.
The court found, based on the administrative record, that Upper Darby had “denied KW a FAPE” for all of both the 2020-21 and 2021-22 school years. It awarded KW $128,635 in compensatory education services. The district appealed.
How did Judge Freeman and the Third Circuit Rule and Why is it Important?
Judge Freeman wrote a unanimous opinion that affirmed the district court’s judgment. She explained that the lower court had “thoroughly discussed” why it had departed from the administrative officer’s findings with ample support from the record and prior case law. In particular, she noted, the court had emphasized the record evidence that the district had failed to implement the experts’ recommendations that KW receive a PBSP.
Judge Freeman also rejected the district’s claim that the district court’s compensatory education award was excessive. She wrote that the record showed that KW’s disabilities and challenges “pervaded his school days and inhibited meaningful educational progress,” and that the district was “on notice” about these problems and the need for a PBSP from the beginning of the 2020-21 school year. The record showed that the tutoring, she continued, was “intermittent, short-lived and unhelpful.” She concluded that the district court’s decision was supported by the record and consistent with prior precedent that compensatory education awards should “place disabled students in the same position they would have occupied but for” the school district’s failure to comply with its obligation to provide a FAPE.
Judge Freeman’s opinion is obviously important to KW, who will now finally receive the education to which he Is entitled under federal law. It also sets important precedent concerning compensatory education awards and other relief for students with disabilities, particularly in the Third Circuit, which includes Pennsylvania, Delaware, and New Jersey. In addition, it serves as a reminder of the importance of promptly confirming fair-minded judges to our federal courts.