California OAH special education order · December 2, 2020
Order Granting Request for Official Notice
OAH Case No. 2020060638 · ALJ Cynthia Fritz
OAH granted Student's unopposed request for official notice of four state and federal COVID-19 special education guidance documents because they are public records.
Summary
Student asked OAH to take judicial notice of four COVID-19 guidance documents. The ALJ treated it as a request for official notice. The documents were California Department of Education special education guidance, a U.S. Secretary of Education report to Congress, OSEP questions and answers, and OCR questions and answers for K-12 schools. Pleasanton Unified School District did not respond, and OAH granted the request because the documents are public records, applying Evidence Code section 452(h) and Government Code section 11515 for guidance.
Why it matters
Parents can ask OAH to officially notice public government guidance, such as COVID-19 special education guidance, so it becomes part of the record without needing a witness to authenticate it.
Key authority cited
- Evid. Code § 452, subd. (h)
- Gov. Code § 11515
People named in the order
- Betsy DeVos, U.S. Secretary of Education (author of noticed report)
Topics
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,
v.
PLEASANTON UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT.
OAH CASE NUMBER 2020060638
ORDER GRANTING REQUEST FOR OFFICIAL NOTICE
DECEMBER 2, 2020
On November 23, 2020, Student filed a request for judicial notice that the undersigned administrative law judge deemed to be a request for official notice.
Student requested official notice of four documents regarding the novel coronavirus, called COVID-19. These documents include:
1. California Department of Education's Special Education Guidance for COVID-
19, posted September 30, 2020;
2. Report to Congress of U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy Devos, dated April 27,
2020;
3. United States Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs
Questions and Answers, dated September 28, 2020; and
4. United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights Questions and
Answers for K-12 Public Schools in the Current COVID-19 Environment.
Pleasanton Unified School District did not file a response to Student's motion.
No specific statute or regulation governs the taking of official notice in special education due process proceedings. For guidance in such situations, OAH often looks to the Evidence Code. Section 452, subdivision (h) of that Code allows the taking of judicial notice of “[f]acts and propositions that are not reasonably subject to dispute and are capable of immediate and accurate determination by resort to sources of reasonably indisputable accuracy.” As specified in Government Code section 11515, judicial notice is generally called official notice when taken by an administrative tribunal.
Here, Student is requesting that official notice be taken of documents that are public record. Accordingly, Student's request for official notice of the stated documents is granted.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
Cynthia Fritz Administrative Law Judge Office of Administrative Hearings