## Facts

- Stephen Komninos, an eight-year-old child with severe disabilities (including cerebral palsy and communicative and behavioral disorders), attended a Board-funded day program under an IEP.
- Stephen’s parents requested a residential placement; the Upper Saddle River Board of Education refused.
- The parents initiated IDEA administrative due process proceedings seeking a residential placement.
- Before the administrative process concluded, the parents unilaterally enrolled Stephen at Heartspring, a residential school in Kansas.
- The Board later funded the Heartspring summer session ending August 7, 1993, without conceding that the placement was required, pending completion of administrative proceedings.
- As the new school year approached and the administrative proceedings remained unresolved, the parents sought emergency interim funding, alleging Stephen would suffer irreparable harm if removed from Heartspring.
- A state administrative officer denied emergency relief.
- The parents filed in federal district court seeking a preliminary injunction ordering interim funding of Heartspring during the pendency of the administrative proceedings.
- The district court dismissed for lack of subject matter jurisdiction based on failure to exhaust administrative remedies; the parents appealed.

## Issues

1. Whether a federal district court may consider a preliminary injunction request under the IDEA before administrative remedies are exhausted when the child faces irreparable harm from an interim placement decision.
2. Whether the district court erred by dismissing on non-exhaustion without fully evaluating recognized exceptions to IDEA exhaustion.

## Decision

- The Third Circuit held that a district court may entertain a motion for a preliminary injunction before exhaustion when an interim placement decision threatens irreparable harm to the child.
- The court concluded the district court erred by dismissing without a complete inquiry into whether an exception to exhaustion applied.
- The case was remanded for the district court to consider the preliminary injunction request under the proper standards.

## Legal Principles

- IDEA generally requires exhaustion of administrative remedies before judicial review, but exhaustion is not absolute.
- Exhaustion may be excused when administrative remedies are futile or inadequate, including when delay would risk irreparable harm to the child’s educational rights.
- A district court considering interim IDEA relief should apply traditional preliminary-injunction factors, including irreparable harm, likelihood of success (or sufficiently serious merits questions), balance of harms, and the public interest in providing appropriate special education services.
- The existence of IDEA’s pendency concept does not eliminate a court’s ability to consider interim injunctive relief when necessary to prevent irreparable harm.

## Conclusion

The Third Circuit ruled that IDEA non-exhaustion does not bar federal courts from considering preliminary injunctive relief when an interim educational placement threatens irreparable harm, and it required the district court to assess whether an exhaustion exception applied before dismissing.


Komninos v. Upper Saddle River Bd. of Educ., 13 F.3d 775 (3d Cir. 1994)