I.C. v. New York City Department of Education
- Andrew Carter
- 1:20-cv-05264
- U.S. District Court · Southern District of New York
- 6
In I.C. v. New York City Department of Education, Judge Carter denied the remaining preliminary-injunction requests over meal reimbursement and future tuition funding.
I.C. and S.G. did not obtain the remaining requested injunction requiring reimbursement of 2019–2020 meal costs or advance funding for 2020–2021 tuition, meals, and transportation. The New York City Department of Education was not required by this order to provide that additional relief.
What happened
In I.C. v. New York City Department of Education, I.C. sued the New York City Department of Education and its Chancellor over funding for S.G.’s placement at Fusion Academy. I.C. alleged that the defendants failed to follow an earlier hearing officer’s order requiring payment of tuition and reimbursement of meal costs.
The court had already ordered the Department to pay the outstanding 2019–2020 tuition balance. It denied the remaining requests for an order requiring reimbursement of 2019–2020 meal costs and funding for the 2020–2021 school year. The court found no irreparable harm from the unpaid meal costs and ruled that I.C. lacked standing to seek an injunction for future tuition payments because no payment was yet due or late and S.G. remained enrolled.
Judge Andrew L. Carter, Jr. denied the parts of I.C.’s preliminary-injunction request that had not been resolved by the earlier order and directed the parties to file a status report about how to proceed.
The detailed version
- I.C. v. New York City Department of Education · No. 1:20-cv-05264
- Andrew Carter
- July 31, 2020
Background
I.C., individually and on behalf of S.G., sued the New York City Department of Education and Richard Carranza, in his official capacity as Chancellor of the Department. The opinion states that S.G. was 20 years old and had been diagnosed with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder, Generalized Anxiety Disorder, and a severe learning disability in math. I.C. alleged that the defendants failed to provide S.G. with a free appropriate public education in violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act and other federal and state law.
A January 7, 2020 order from an impartial hearing officer required the Department to pay S.G.’s full tuition at Fusion Academy for the 2019–2020 school year and reimburse meal costs. I.C. alleged that the Department had not fully complied. I.C. also alleged that Fusion Academy refused to enroll S.G. for the 2020–2021 school year because the Department had not funded the prior year’s tuition.
Earlier injunction ruling
I.C. sought a temporary restraining order and a preliminary injunction. The court denied the request for a temporary restraining order but ordered the Department to explain why a preliminary injunction should not issue. After reviewing the submissions and holding a hearing, the court granted the preliminary-injunction request in part. It ordered the Department to fund the outstanding 2019–2020 tuition balance by July 16, 2020, at 5:00 p.m. The Department mailed a check on that date, and the check reached Fusion Academy by July 22, 2020. The opinion states that S.G. should by then have been enrolled in school.
Remaining requests
The parties asked the court to rule on the unresolved requests: reimbursement for outstanding 2019–2020 meal costs and funding for S.G.’s continued placement at Fusion Academy during the 2020–2021 school year, including tuition, meals, and transportation.
The court denied the request for reimbursement of the meal costs because I.C. had not shown irreparable harm. A preliminary injunction requires an actual and imminent injury that cannot be remedied by money damages. The court found no connection between reimbursement for past meal costs and S.G.’s ability to attend school, and it found no other harm that could not be compensated with money.
The court also denied the request for an injunction requiring payment of 2020–2021 tuition. The Department had agreed to fund the tuition and make payments within 27 to 32 days after receiving required documents from Fusion Academy. No 2020–2021 payment was yet due, and no payment had been missed or made late. Because S.G. was enrolled and I.C. had not shown an actual injury or a substantial risk of future harm, the court ruled that I.C. lacked standing, meaning she had not shown the injury required to bring that request in federal court.
Disposition
The court denied the elements of I.C.’s preliminary-injunction request that were not addressed by the earlier order. It ordered the parties to file a status report on August 14, 2020, stating how they wished to proceed. This order addressed preliminary relief and did not decide the underlying education-law claims on their merits.
Read the full 6-page opinion on CourtListener, the free public archive maintained by the Free Law Project.