Deferential Standard of Review

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7^th Circuit Court of Appeals

Case Name: B.G., et al. v. Board of Education of the City of Chicago, et al.

Case No.: 17-1806

Officials: BAUER, EASTERBROOK, and MANION, Circuit Judges.

Focus: Deferential Standard of Review

B.G. and his mother, J.A.G., appeal from the district court’s denial of their motion to reverse the ruling of an Illinois State Board of Education Impartial Hearing Officer. J.A.G. had sought public funding for several Individual Educational Evaluations because she believed the Chicago Public Schools’ (the District) evaluations of B.G. were inadequate. The hearing officer found that the District proved by a preponderance of the evidence that its evaluations were appropriate. The district court denied B.G.’s motion to reverse the hearing officer’s decision, deferring appropriately to the hearing officer’s conclusions.

This case involves a voluminous administrative record dealing with subject matter beyond the expertise of federal judges. That is why we defer to the hearing officer’s factual findings and decline to substitute our own views on educational policy for the hearing officer’s. The hearing officer in this case conducted a five-day hearing, heard the relevant evidence, and concluded that the District’s experts evaluated B.G. appropriately. While B.G. presents many complaints about the District’s evaluators, the record shows that the District’s evaluators were competent, well-trained, and performed comprehensive evaluations. Particularly under the deferential standard of review applicable here, we have no cause to set aside the hearing officer’s well-reasoned decision.

Affirmed

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