A federal appeals court has upheld a U.S. Department of Education regulation requiring school districts, under certain circumstances, to reimburse parents for independent educational evaluations (IEE).
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled unanimously to uphold a regulation, which has been in place since 1977, requiring school districts to pay for an IEE when parents disagree with the district’s initial assessment of their child.
The case involves an Alabama boy whose parents disagreed with the district’s evaluation of their son and obtained an independent evaluation. The district refused to reimburse the parents, who pursued relief through administrative channels and later, through the courts.
The district challenged the authority of the U.S. Secretary of Education to promulgate the regulation requiring that parents be reimbursed for independent evaluations, arguing that the regulation exceeded the scope of IDEA because the statute itself does not authorize such reimbursements. The U.S. Department of Justice, filed an amicus brief in support of the parents, arguing that the regulation was valid, and was entitled to deference.
A federal district court rejected the board’s arguments, and later, in its decision, affirmed the ruling.
The court noted that Congress, in effect, endorsed the independent evaluation regulation in a 1983 reauthorization of IDEA, and again when it renewed IDEA in 1990, 1997, and 2004.
The court wrote:
Under the re-enactment doctrine, Congress is presumed to be aware of an administrative or judicial interpretation of a statute and to adopt that interpretation when it re-enacts a statute without change. Accordingly, Congress has clearly evinced its intent that parents have the right to obtain an IEE at public expense.
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