California OAH special education order · December 7, 2023
Notice of No Action Regarding Student's Response to District's Request to Dismiss Without Prejudice
OAH Case No. 2023090184 · ALJ Kara Hatfield
OAH took no action on Student's request to keep open or reopen Long Beach's withdrawn assessment case, because Student cannot block a district's dismissal without prejudice or turn it into a hearing on Parent's concerns.
This case went to decision
Student v. Long Beach Unified School District: Long Beach Unified must fund four IEEs after failing to file for hearing or respond; vision cost cap upheld. (2021)
Summary
Long Beach filed for due process to get authorization to assess Student under a May 16, 2023 assessment plan. It asked OAH to dismiss the case without prejudice after Parent consented to the three-year-review assessment, and OAH dismissed it. Student then asked OAH to keep the case open so it could address Parent's disagreements since an earlier OAH decision, the assessment results, and the services offered afterward. OAH took no action on that request. It reasoned that the only issue for hearing was resolved, the filing party had asked for dismissal, and Student cannot stop the district from withdrawing its case or turn it into a hearing on Parent's own concerns.
Why it matters
A parent cannot keep a district-filed case alive to raise the family's own disputes once the district withdraws it. To have those concerns heard, the parent must file a separate due process complaint.
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:
LONG BEACH UNIFIED SCHOOL DISTRICT,
v.
PARENT ON BEHALF OF STUDENT.
OAH CASE NUMBER 2023090184
NOTICE OF NO ACTION REGARDING STUDENT'S
RESPONSE TO DISTRICT'S REQUEST TO DISMISS
WITHOUT PREJUDICE
DECEMBER 7, 2023
On September 5, 2023, Long Beach Unified School District filed a request for due process hearing with the Office of Administrative Hearings, called OAH, naming Student.
On November 29, 2023, Long Beach requested OAH dismiss the case without prejudice.
On November 30, 2023, OAH dismissed the case.
On November 30, 2023, Student filed a response to Long Beach’s request to dismiss the case without prejudice, requesting that the case remain open due to disagreements Parent has with events since OAH issued a Decision in an earlier matter, OAH Case No. 2021020305. Additionally, Student sought to review the results of the three-year-review assessment to which Parent recently agreed and the special education and related services offered thereafter.
Long Beach did not file any response to Student’s request for OAH to deny Long Beach’s request to dismiss.
Long Beach withdrew its request for due process hearing to obtain authorization to assess Student under the May 16, 2023 assessment plan. because Parent consented to the three-year-review assessment. The only issue for hearing was resolved and, based on the request of the party who filed the complaint, OAH dismissed the case.
Student may not prevent Long Beach from withdrawing its case without prejudice nor convert the school district’s case into a hearing regarding concerns Parent desires an Administrative Law Judge determine.
Accordingly, no action is taken on Student’s request not to close the case, or to re-open it.
Kara Hatfield Administrative Law Judge Office of Administrative Hearings