Filed Date: July 17, 1997
Closed Date: Dec. 18, 2014
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On July 17, 1997, several public school students with disabilities brought this class action lawsuit under 42 U.S.C. § 1983 in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia against the District of Columbia, D.C. Public Schools (DCPS), the Chief Executive Officer of DCPS and Director of Special Education of DCPS, to challenge the city public school system’s failure to comply with the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Specifically, the students alleged that the defendants had failed to timely respond to the requests of students and parents for administrative due process hearings pursuant to IDEA. The plaintiffs were represented by attorneys from the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, as well as private counsel The case was initially assigned to District Judge Louis F. Oberdorfer.
On October 22, 1997, Judge Oberdorfer granted the plaintiffs’ motion for class certification. The case was reassigned to District Judge Paul L. Friedman on October 23, 1997. On May 14, 1998, the Court consolidated this case with Curtis v. District of Columbia, Civil Action No. 97-2402, which had been filed on October 16, 1997 against the same defendants for their alleged failure to implement hearing officer determinations (HROs) and settlement agreements (SAs) in a timely manner, as required by the IDEA. In the same order, the Court granted certification of the Curtis class (which became the Jones class) and consolidated the two classes to create a single class with two subclasses.
On June 3, 1998, Judge Friedman granted summary judgment for both subclasses of plaintiffs on the issue of the defendants’ liability, holding that there was no genuine issue of material fact as to the failure to meet binding obligations under the IDEA. Rather than prescribe an immediate remedy for the defendants’ failure to comply with the IDEA, he ordered the parties to jointly submit a “proposed plan and schedule for resolution of the issue of remedy.” Judge Friedman noted then that “a broad, class-wide preliminary injunction requiring the District to immediately comply with its statutory and regulatory obligations” would be “ineffective and impractical” because of D.C.’s lack of resources.
On February 12, 1999, however, Judge Friedman determined that D.C. had ignored its obligations under the IDEA, even in severe cases; he thereby appointed Elise Baach, as a Special Master for “for the limited purposes of assisting the Court in resolving the requests for immediate injunctive relief” by individual plaintiffs. 185 F.R.D. 4. On April 14, 1999, Judge Friedman referred the case to Magistrate Judge John M. Facciola for resolution of discovery disputes between the parties.
The Court proceeded to refer the parties to mediation, which resulted in their agreement on a settlement and proposed consent decree on June 24, 1999. However, in light of the objections of various members of the special education bar, the parties entered into a revised settlement and proposed consent decree on December 10, 1999. The Court did not grant preliminary or final approval, but the defendants agreed to nevertheless comply with its terms on an interim basis. Due to an increased backlog of both unscheduled due process hearings and HODs and SAs, the Court denied the parties’ motion for final approval on September 3, 2002. After mediation, the parties reached a second revised proposed consent decree; Judge Friedman rejected it on June 9, 2004, however, because the proposed decree failed to provide certainty with respect to which entity would ultimately be responsible for ensuring the execution of due process hearings and HOD implementations in a timely manner. 321 F. Supp. 2d 99. On May 17, 2005, after the parties’ settlement discussions failed to lead to agreement, the Court appointed Judge David S. Tatel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit and Judge Amy Totenberg of the U.S. District Court for the District Court of Georgia as co-mediators. However, two new proposed consent decrees agreed to by the parties were ultimately rejected by the Court due to objections by interested parties and class members.
Finally, following years of negotiations, different proposals, fairness hearings and mediation, the parties executed a revised proposed Consent Decree and filed a motion for final approval on June 30, 2006. The Court approved this Consent Decree on August 24, 2006, which in relevant part mandated: DCPS to timely adjudicate or settle 90% of hearing requests within 30 days and allow no due process request to be more than 90 days overdue; a June 30, 2007 deadline for the implementation of all overdue HODs and SAs; deadlines by which DCPS was required to timely implement higher percentages of HODs and SAs; annual reassessment of such requirements; a commitment by D.C. to provide $5 million annually, in addition to the normal DCPS budget, to achieve compliance with the Decree; a commitment by D.C. to provide an additional $10 million to fulfill the defendants’ obligation to provide a compensatory education; the appointment of a Monitor (Amy Totenberg) and the establishment of an Evaluation Team to provide periodic reports and oversee compliance with the Decree; and monthly and quarterly reporting requirements.
Subsequently, pursuant to the Decree, the parties filed a joint motion to award reasonable attorneys’ fees and costs due to plaintiffs’ counsel, which the Court granted on October 12, 2007 in the amount of $1,820,000. In its Order, however, the Court did not require defendants to pay the full amount at that time because of the statutory cap of $4,000 on payment of attorneys’ fees under IDEA established by the 2006 District of Columbia Appropriations Act. On March 11, 2008, Judge Friedman found this statutory cap to apply only to individuals, as opposed to class, actions and ordered the defendants to pay the fees and costs in full.
The Monitor Report for the 2007-2008 school year demonstrated, however, that D.C. continued to fail to implement hundreds of HODs and settlement agreements, as required by the Decree. Despite reporting “marked gains towards achieving compliance with” the Consent Decree, the 2009-2010 Monitor Report similarly concluded that “[d]efendants have not met the baseline HOD/SA implementation performance requirement of the Consent Decree.”
By the 2010-2011 school year, D.C. and DCPS finally came into substantial compliance by providing timely administrative due process hearings to students and their families. As a result, Judge Friedman granted the parties’ joint motion to dismiss the Blackman portion of the case on July 5, 2011 with respect to the hearings. D.C. and DCPS continued to fail to implement HODs and SAs, leaving the Jones portion of the case subject to the court’s jurisdiction. The Monitor found in the 2013-2014 Report , however, that the defendants had satisfied the Decree’s requirements with respect to the timely implementation of HODs and SAs, on December 18, 2014, Judge Friedman granted the parties’ joint motion to dismiss the remaining portion of the Jones case and to terminate the Consent Decree in its entirety. The case is now closed.
Summary Authors
Chris Miller (12/22/2022)
For PACER's information on parties and their attorneys, see: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4630153/parties/blackman-v-dc/
Alvarez, Karen D. (District of Columbia)
Abel, Charlotte A. (District of Columbia)
Adams, Eugene A. III (District of Columbia)
Alexandri, Maya (District of Columbia)
Anderson, Brian C. (District of Columbia)
Alvarez, Karen D. (District of Columbia)
Bossing, Lewis (District of Columbia)
Brisbane, Latoya (District of Columbia)
Brown, James E. (District of Columbia)
Burnim, Ira Abraham (District of Columbia)
Chassy, Paul Leonard (Maryland)
Dalton, Ellen Douglass (District of Columbia)
Dalton, Paul S. (District of Columbia)
Drake, Ronald Lee (District of Columbia)
Fawcett, Myrna Lee (District of Columbia)
Fawcett, Arthur Hughes (District of Columbia)
Fraidin, Matthew I. (District of Columbia)
Gambale, Roberta L. (District of Columbia)
Gerald, Tilman L. (District of Columbia)
Goode, Jesse P (District of Columbia)
Goodman, Tracy L. (District of Columbia)
Graff, Julia (District of Columbia)
Houck, Carolyn W. (District of Columbia)
Houston, William E. (Virginia)
Huebner, Lawrence H. (District of Columbia)
Iseman, Haylie Michelle (Maryland)
Jenefsky, Anna Elizabeth (District of Columbia)
Jester, Elizabeth T. (Virginia)
Jones-Moon, Bonita A. (District of Columbia)
Kirby, Ky Elaine (District of Columbia)
Kohn, Margaret A. (District of Columbia)
Lang, Lindsey Bishop (District of Columbia)
Lipps, Andrew L. (District of Columbia)
Lipscomb, Angela (District of Columbia)
LYONS, JULIUS (District of Columbia)
Malson, Laurel Pyke (District of Columbia)
Mazgaj, Matthew R. (District of Columbia)
McQuinn, Urenthea (District of Columbia)
Moran, Charles Anthony (District of Columbia)
Murrell, Travis A. (District of Columbia)
Ney, Steven (District of Columbia)
Read, Emily B. (District of Columbia)
Reff, Alisa H. (District of Columbia)
Rinaldi, Laura Nicole (District of Columbia)
Rosenstock, Paula Amy (Maryland)
Ryan, Jane Irene (District of Columbia)
Savit, Diana Marjorie (Maryland)
Seltzer, Tamara Lynn (District of Columbia)
Sosnowsky, Mark H. (District of Columbia)
Tulman, Joseph B. (District of Columbia)
Abel, Charlotte A. (District of Columbia)
Adams, Eugene A. III (District of Columbia)
Alexandri, Maya (District of Columbia)
Bell, Lisa Annette (District of Columbia)
Bolden, Melvin W. Jr. (District of Columbia)
Caspari, Amy (District of Columbia)
Chambers, Darrell (District of Columbia)
Coburn, Barry (District of Columbia)
Copeland, Chad Wayne (District of Columbia)
Covington, Evangeline (District of Columbia)
Dahline, Susan L. (District of Columbia)
DeMarco, Juliane T. (District of Columbia)
Earl, William Johnson Jr. (District of Columbia)
Efros, Ellen A. (District of Columbia)
Eisenstein, Marc Jason (District of Columbia)
Finkhousen, Aaron Josiah (District of Columbia)
Frost, Shana Lyn (District of Columbia)
George, Laura (District of Columbia)
Grossman, Martin L. (District of Columbia)
Healy, Victoria Lynne (District of Columbia)
Hopkins, Cathye (District of Columbia)
Infelise, Jeffery Thomas (District of Columbia)
Latterell, Richard Allan (District of Columbia)
Margolis, Daniel Herbert (District of Columbia)
Matini, Shana Lyn (District of Columbia)
Mazych, Veleter (District of Columbia)
McManus, Laurie Pouzzner (Virginia)
Merkowitz, Maria L. (District of Columbia)
Miller, Barbara A. (District of Columbia)
Miller, Eden Ilene (District of Columbia)
Nickles, Peter J. (District of Columbia)
Perry-Gaiter, Grace (District of Columbia)
Pollak, Cary D. (District of Columbia)
Porter, Veronica A. (District of Columbia)
Potter, Jonathon F. (District of Columbia)
Racca, Andrew W. (District of Columbia)
Rezneck, Daniel A. (District of Columbia)
Rigsby, Robert (District of Columbia)
Schultz, Nancy S. (District of Columbia)
Spagnoletti, Robert J. (District of Columbia)
Taptich, Edward P. (District of Columbia)
Anderson, Brian C. (District of Columbia)
Baach, Elise T. (District of Columbia)
Baum, Lauren E. (District of Columbia)
Berlow, Robert Irving (Maryland)
Branch, David A (District of Columbia)
FLORENCE, BETTIE J. (District of Columbia)
Green, Angela T'nia (District of Columbia)
Klemm, Rebecca (District of Columbia)
MOHAMMED, VALENCIA (District of Columbia)
Nabors, Steve (District of Columbia)
PATTERSON, JENISE (District of Columbia)
Sundram, Clarence J. (New York)
See docket on RECAP: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/4630153/blackman-v-dc/
Last updated Feb. 5, 2025, 9:49 a.m.
State / Territory: District of Columbia
Case Type(s):
Key Dates
Filing Date: July 17, 1997
Closing Date: Dec. 18, 2014
Case Ongoing: No
Plaintiffs
Plaintiff Description:
Several public school students with disabilities in the District of Columbia.
Plaintiff Type(s):
Attorney Organizations:
Public Interest Lawyer: Yes
Filed Pro Se: No
Class Action Sought: Yes
Class Action Outcome: Granted
Defendants
District of Columbia (Washington, District of Columbia), City
District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) (Washington, District of Columbia), School District
Defendant Type(s):
Case Details
Causes of Action:
Indv. w/ Disab. Educ. Act (IDEA), Educ. of All Handcpd. Children Act , 20 U.S.C. § 1400
Available Documents:
Injunctive (or Injunctive-like) Relief
Outcome
Prevailing Party: Plaintiff
Nature of Relief:
Injunction / Injunctive-like Settlement
Preliminary injunction / Temp. restraining order
Source of Relief:
Form of Settlement:
Court Approved Settlement or Consent Decree
Content of Injunction:
Order Duration: 2006 - 2014
Issues
Disability and Disability Rights: