California OAH special education order · March 22, 2018

Order Denying Student's Request for Judicial Notice

OAH Case No. 2017060038 · ALJ Christine Arden

OAH denied Student's request for judicial notice of a California Department of Education investigation report because the report involved different parties and was irrelevant to this case.

Denied Evidence and witnesses

This case went to decision

Student v. Hermosa Beach City School District: Hermosa Beach City School District owes nearly 500 hours of compensatory services for undisclosed physical holds at a nonpublic school. (2018)

Summary

Student asked OAH to take judicial notice of an unauthenticated document said to be a California Department of Education investigation report in Case S-0249-17/18. Student, District, and Switzer Learning Center, the non-public school involved, were not parties to that investigation. OAH noted that Government Code section 11515, which allows official notice in some administrative hearings, does not apply to special education due process hearings. It also found that anything judicially noticed must be relevant, and a report about different parties was not relevant here, so the request was denied.

Why it matters

A state compliance complaint report about other parties will not automatically come into a due process hearing through judicial notice. Families should be ready to authenticate a document and show how it bears on their own child's issues.

Key authority cited

  • Gov. Code, § 11515
  • Gov. Code, § 11502
  • Evid. Code, § 451
  • Evid. Code, § 452
  • Mozetti v. City of Brisbane (1977) 67 Cal.App.3d 565

Topics

judicial notice evidence cde compliance report relevance nonpublic school

Full text of the order

Published text of the OAH order. Page headers and numbers from the original PDF have been dropped.

BEFORE THE

OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS

STATE OF CALIFORNIA

In the Matter of:

PARENT ON BEHALF OF STUDENT, OAH Case No. 2017060038 v. ORDER DENYING STUDENT’S

REQUEST FOR JUDICIAL NOTICE

HERMOSA BEACH CITY SCHOOL

DISTRICT.

Student filed a Request for Judicial Notice with OAH on February 14, 2018.

Student’s request sought judicial notice of an unauthenticated document purported to be a California Department of Education Investigation Report in Case S-0249-17/18. Neither Student, District, nor Switzer Learning Center, the non-public school involved in this matter, were parties to the investigation or the report.

Government Code section 11515 permits ALJs conducting hearings pursuant to Government Code section 11502 to take official notice of matters that can be, or must be, judicially noticed pursuant to Evidence Code sections 451 and 452. However, Government Code section 11515 does not apply to due process hearings. Furthermore, as with evidence generally, the matter to be judicially noticed must be relevant to the issues in the case.

(Mozetti v. City of Brisbane (1977) 67 Cal.App.3d 565, 578.) Since the parties in the proffered report were different than the parties in this case, such report is irrelevant to this case. Therefore, Student’s Request for Judicial Notice is denied.

DATE: March 22, 2018

CHRISTINE ARDEN

Administrative Law Judge Office of Administrative Hearings