Case:
CC v. Granby Bd. Of Educ.
___ F.Supp. 2d ___ , 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73420 (D. Conn. 2006)
Education, Civil Rights
U.S. District Court
September 30, 2006
In an interesting federal
special education decision, the United States District Court, District
of Connecticut, awarded plaintiff over $93,000 in attorney's fees
for a successful administrative hearing decision garnered through
a Due Process procedure. The minor child/plaintiff, C, claimed that
the defendant Granby Board of Education ("Board"), failed to provide
him with a free appropriate public education ("FAPE") by virtue
of rejecting a second round of specialized reading tutorial at an
intensive program located in Stamford. Plaintiff's mother challenged
the denial and prevailed before an administrative hearing officer,
who found that the board did not provide FAPE under IDEA during
2004 and 2005 and ordered the Board to pay for an additional twelve
weeks of specialized reading instruction, plus transportation to
Stamford.
The District Court found
that the plaintiff qualified as a prevailing party under Buckhannon
Bd. & Care Home, Inc. v. W. Va. Dep't. of Health & Human Res.,
532 U.S. 598 (2001), See also A.R.
v. N.Y. City Dep't. of Educ., 407 F.3d 65 (2d Cir. 2005). Thus
- plaintiff was entitled to attorney's fees pursuant to the fee
shifting provision in IDEA, 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(3)(B). The interesting
analysis results in the assessment of the "lodestar" calculation
which determined the amount of attorney's fees due plaintiff's counsel.
In this case - the court pens a thoughtful analysis of the attorney's
work, his expertise, hourly rate and the paralegal's costs. In addition,
the court denied the plaintiff's motion to enforce the hearing officer's
decision because the plaintiff's had not exhausted administrative
remedies through the state Department of Education.
This case may be accessed
through Westlaw or Lexis at this time.
