Case:
E.K. v. Stamford Bd. Of Educ.
___ F.Supp.2d ___, 2007 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 43505 (D. Conn. 2007)
Education
District Court for the District of Connecticut
June 15, 2006
In March 2005, a secondary
school Planning and Placement Team ("PPT") exited the plaintiff
(E.K.), a student in Stamford, Connecticut, from special education
upon agreeing he met the goals of his Individualized Education Plan
("IEP"). The plaintiff remained in regular education and neither
his parents nor he ever raised concerns regarding his need for special
education. In February and March of 2007, Stamford Public Schools
suspended the plaintiff twice for fighting and the plaintiff was
arrested for a felony hate crime. Stamford Public Schools provided
the plaintiff with homebound instruction and subsequently scheduled
an expulsion hearing. The plaintiff's parents filed a request for
a due process hearing challenging the plaintiff's exit from special
education and asserting a violation of procedural rights and concurrently
requested relief from the hearing officer enjoining the Stamford
Board of Education from proceeding with E.K's expulsion. On May
2, 2007, the hearing officer denied the application for injunctive
relief. The parents then filed an action in federal district court
challenging the denial of injunctive relief.
The District Court for the
District of Connecticut denied the plaintiff's motion for a temporary
restraining order and preliminary injunction. The Court held that
the plaintiff was not entitled to stay-put protections because he
is not currently a special education student and the defendant (the
Stamford Board of Ed) did not have knowledge of his disability prior
to the conduct precipitating the disciplinary action. As a result,
the court denied plaintiff's claim that he is entitled to the Individuals
with Disabilities Education Act's stay-put provisions because he
did not exhaust his administrative remedies - and because he had
not obtained an administrative hearing officer's decision challenging
his special education eligibility.
