Alaska Employment Law

The 9th Circuit has reversed U. S. Judge Ralph Beistline on a number of issues presented when the Disability Law Center of Alaska sought information about the treatment of special ed students at Lake Otis Elementary School in Anchorage.  Beistline’s dismissal of the Center’s lawsuit against the Anchorage School District was argued on August 3rd, in Anchorage, before the panel of Jerome Farris, David Thompson, and Johnnie Rawlinson.

The panel held:

1.  The departure from employment of the person alleged to have abused the students does not bar an Protection and Advocacy agency from demanding information about the treatment, because the Developmental Disabilities Act addresses both past and future harm. 

2.  FERPA (”the Buckley Amendment”) doesn’t bar a P&A agency’s access to student records without parental consent or court order.  The panel relied on a DHHS and DOE amicus brief in another court, and deferred to those agencies’ construction of the interaction between FERPA and the Disabilities Act. 

3.  District of Alaska Local Rule 54.3 doesn’t authorize the District Court to award Rule 82 fees where it adjudicates only federal claims.

Disability Law Center of Alaska, Inc. v. Anchorage School District, 2009 WL _______ (9th Cir. Sept. 9, 2009)

Megan Allison and Holly Johanknecht from the Center represented the Center.  Brad Owens and Cheryl Mandala from Jermain Dunnagan represented the School District.  All counsel practice in Anchorage.