## Facts

- F.C., a 15-year-old student in the Palmyra school district, was diagnosed with severe ADHD affecting organization, impulse control, and academic performance.
- The school district determined F.C. was ineligible for special education under the IDEA and did not timely provide or implement adequate accommodations under § 504 of the Rehabilitation Act.
- A § 504 plan was eventually developed, but it was later found inadequate to provide F.C. a free appropriate public education (FAPE).
- F.C.’s parents unilaterally placed him in a private school specializing in educating disabled children and sought tuition and transportation funding through state administrative proceedings under § 504.
- An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) found the district’s § 504 plan “seriously deficient,” concluded the private placement was appropriate, and ordered the district to pay tuition and transportation.
- The school district did not comply and instead filed a federal action challenging the ALJ order.
- The parents counterclaimed and moved for a preliminary injunction compelling payment pending judicial review; the district cross-moved to stay the ALJ order.
- The court also addressed whether Rule 65(c) required the parents to post security to obtain injunctive relief despite alleged indigency.

## Issues

1. Whether a preliminary injunction should compel the school district to fund tuition and transportation required by the ALJ’s § 504 order pending final judicial review, or whether the ALJ order should be stayed.
2. Whether, and to what extent, Rule 65(c) requires an injunction bond when indigent parents seek to enforce a disabled student’s statutory rights under § 504.

## Decision

- Granted the parents’ motion for a preliminary injunction requiring the district to pay tuition and transportation for the private placement during the pendency of the federal appeal.
- Denied the district’s motion to stay the ALJ’s decision.
- Waived any meaningful Rule 65(c) security requirement (effectively a nominal or zero bond) based on indigency and the public-interest character of enforcing § 504 educational rights.

## Legal Principles

- A court applies the traditional preliminary-injunction factors: likelihood of success, irreparable harm, balance of harms, and the public interest.
- Under § 504 and 34 C.F.R. § 104.33, a public school must provide a disabled student a FAPE comparable to that provided to non-disabled students; where the public program is inadequate, funding of an appropriate private placement may be required.
- Loss of appropriate educational services for a disabled student constitutes irreparable harm because missed educational progress during development cannot be fully remedied by later monetary relief.
- Financial harm to a school district from interim payments is generally compensable, and may weigh less than a student’s risk of immediate educational loss.
- In reviewing educational placement disputes, a federal court may give substantial weight to findings from a full administrative hearing when assessing likelihood of success.
- Rule 65(c) leaves the amount of security to the court’s discretion; courts may reduce or waive a bond where plaintiffs are indigent and the injunction seeks to vindicate important statutory or public rights, even if the defendant faces some risk of non-recovery.

## Conclusion

The court required interim funding of a disabled student’s private placement under § 504 while the district challenged an ALJ order, finding likely success and irreparable educational harm absent payment, and it exercised discretion to waive an injunction bond due to indigency and the public interest in enforcing federal disability-education protections.


Borough of Palmyra Bd. of Educ. v. F.C., 2 F. Supp. 2d 637 (D.N.J. 1998)