Please ensure Javascript is enabled for purposes of website accessibility

01-2707 Reid L., et al. v. Illinois State Board of Education, et al.

By: dmc-admin//May 20, 2002//

01-2707 Reid L., et al. v. Illinois State Board of Education, et al.

By: dmc-admin//May 20, 2002//

Listen to this article

“These motions were filed nine years after the Corey H. litigation began; more than two years after the district court’s opinion finding the ISBE liable and singling out the state-wide teacher certification standards as a particular violation of the least restrictive environment rules; and more than ten months after the court approved the settlement agreement that formed the basis for the work leading up to the certification rules and the transition rules. These events provided ample notice to the Reid L. parties that their interests might be implicated in the ISBE’s response to the court’s orders. To the extent that they are arguing that the standard requires that their interests have been impaired beyond any remedy, they are wrong. … The time to intervene was, at the very latest, when the remedial process began, ten months before the actual motion. That was when the rules were being drafted and publicly discussed; that was when their input could have been received without undoing the long and difficult process that all other parties to this litigation had been pursuing in good faith. Even if we were to consider the ten months to be the only relevant delay, we could find no error in the district court’s determination, as a decision about timeliness is reviewed for abuse of discretion.”

“The district court’s conclusion that the other parties to the litigation would suffer prejudice if the Reid L. parties were entitled to intervene is also well supported on this record. This case is close to completion, after a decade of litigation in the federal courts. If the Reid L. parties were allowed to enter now, everyone would be forced to return to Square One, with the same old certification rules in place, the same old problems under the IDEA, and no remedy in sight.”

Affirmed.

Appeals from the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois, Gettleman, J., Diane P. Wood, J.

Polls

Should Steven Avery be granted a new evidentiary hearing?

View Results

Loading ... Loading ...

Legal News

See All Legal News

WLJ People

Sea all WLJ People

Opinion Digests