## Facts

- Kelly McNair, a student with a hearing impairment, lived with her parents in the Oak Hills Local School District.
- Kelly qualified for a free appropriate public education (FAPE) under the Education of the Handicapped Act (EHA).
- The school district was willing to provide Kelly an appropriate education at a district public school (Frost Elementary School).
- Kelly’s parents unilaterally enrolled her at St. Rita’s, a nonpublic school for the deaf.
- The parents paid St. Rita’s tuition and provided all transportation to and from the school.
- The trip from the McNairs’ home to St. Rita’s exceeded two miles.
- The district provided free transportation to students (disabled and nondisabled) attending district public schools who lived more than two miles away.
- The district also provided free transportation to nondisabled elementary/primary students attending nonpublic schools more than two miles from home.
- After the district refused to provide transportation to St. Rita’s, the parents pursued an administrative due-process hearing and then filed suit in federal court seeking an order requiring transportation.

## Issues

1. Whether the EHA required a school district to provide transportation as a related service for a child unilaterally placed by her parents in a private school, when the district offered an appropriate public-school placement.
2. Whether the parents were entitled to judicial relief compelling district-funded transportation to the private school under the EHA, given the case posture and stipulated facts.

## Decision

- The Sixth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of the action, though on different reasoning than the district court.
- The court held the district was not required under the EHA to provide transportation to and from the private school chosen by the parents.
- Because the district was willing to provide an appropriate public-school program satisfying FAPE, the parents’ preference for a private placement did not expand the district’s EHA obligations to include private-school transportation.

## Legal Principles

- The EHA requires a school district receiving federal funds to make FAPE available to eligible children with disabilities.
- “Related services,” including transportation, are required only to the extent necessary to support the special-education program that constitutes FAPE.
- When a district offers an appropriate public placement that satisfies FAPE, parents who unilaterally place a child in a private school generally bear the costs associated with that choice, including transportation, absent a showing that the public placement was inappropriate.
- An appellate court may affirm a correct judgment on grounds supported by the record even if it does not adopt the lower court’s reasoning.

## Conclusion

The court concluded that because the district offered Kelly an appropriate public-school education, the EHA did not obligate the district to provide transportation to the private school her parents selected and financed, and the dismissal of the parents’ federal action was affirmed.


McNair v. Oak Hills Loc. Sch. Dist., 872 F.2d 153 (6th Cir. 1989)