Pierre-Noel v. Bridges Public Charter School

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT

FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA

MARGDA PIERRE-NOEL, on behalf of her

minor child K.N.,

Plaintiff,

v. Case No. 1:23-cv-00070 (TNM)

BRIDGES PUBLIC CHARTER SCHOOL,

et al.,

Defendants.

MEMORANDUM OPINION

This case is about who must ensure that a disabled child reaches his school bus. Margda

Pierre-Noel sued Bridges Public Charter School and the District of Columbia under the

Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) for failing to provide a free and

appropriate public education and related services for her minor son, K.N. Pierre-Noel seeks

review of a hearing officer’s decision that she is responsible for getting K.N. to and from the

school bus. She also seeks an order that his school denied him a free and appropriate public

education under the IDEA for failing to provide in-person support while he learned from home

and for failing to provide an in-school nurse. The school agrees with certain aspects of the

hearing officer’s decision, but disagrees with others—including that it failed to provide an

appropriate education. The District agrees with the hearing officer’s decision that it need not

carry K.N. to the school bus.

Before the Court are cross-motions for summary judgment from Pierre-Noel, the school,

and the District. The Court will grant the District summary judgment on the transportation claim

because it finds that the IDEA does not mandate the service Pierre-Noel seeks. But the Court

will grant Pierre-Noel summary judgment on her free and appropriate public education claim

because the school did not plan adequate support for K.N. to learn from home. Finally, the Court

will grant the school’s motion as to the issue of failing to have a nurse present in school because

K.N. was learning from home at the time. Also, Pierre-Noel has not shown injury or

redressability on this claim. In sum, the Court will grant the District’s motion in full, and it will

grant in part and deny in part the other two motions.

I.

A.

The IDEA offers states and the District of Columbia federal funding to provide a “free

appropriate public education” (“FAPE”) to disabled children. 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(1)(A). A

FAPE includes both “special education and related services.” Id. § 1401(9). “Special education”

is “specially designed instruction . . . to meet the unique needs of a child with a disability,” and

“related services” are those “required to assist a child . . . to benefit from” that instruction. Id.

§ 1401(26), (29). The IDEA defines “related services” as

transportation, and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services

(including speech-language pathology and audiology services, interpreting services,

psychological services, physical and occupational therapy, recreation . . . [and]

counseling services, including rehabilitation counseling, orientation and mobility services

. . . as may be required to assist a child with a disability to benefit from special

education[.]

Id. § 1401(26)(A).

The meaning of “transportation” is key to this case. The Act’s implementing regulations

note that “transportation” “includes travel to and from school and between schools” and

“specialized equipment (such as special or adapted buses, lifts, and ramps), if required to provide

special transportation for a child with a disability.” 34 C.F.R. § 300.34(c)(16).

2

To ensure that a child receives a FAPE, special education and related services must be

provided “in conformity with the [child’s] individualized education program,” or IEP. 20 U.S.C.

§ 1401(9)(D). An IEP is the “centerpiece of the statute’s education delivery system[.]” Honig v.

Doe, 484 U.S. 305, 311 (1988). “It is through the IEP that the free appropriate public education

required by the Act is tailored to the unique needs of a particular child.” Endrew F. ex rel.

Joseph F. v. Douglas Cnty. Sch. Dist. RE-1, 580 U.S. 386, 401 (2017) (cleaned up). The IEP

must be “reasonably calculated to enable a child to make progress appropriate in light of the

child’s circumstances.” Id. at 399. A team of interested individuals—including the child’s

parents and teachers—draft his IEP. See 20 U.S.C. § 1412(a)(4), 1414(d). Each IEP must

describe the “special education and related services . . . that will be provided” to help the child

“advance appropriately.” Id. § 1414(d)(1).

The IDEA provides that “[t]o the maximum extent appropriate[,]” disabled children

should be “educated with children who are not disabled.” Id. § 1412(a)(5). This means that

removal from the “regular educational environment occurs only when the nature or severity of

the disability is such that education in regular classes with the use of supplementary aids and

services cannot be achieved satisfactorily.” Id. To further this statutory instruction, IEPs specify

a child’s “least restrictive environment”—the location and services a student should receive. Id.;

see also 34 C.F.R. §§ 300.114(a), 300.115–16.

3

B.

K.N. is a first grader eligible for special education and related services under the IDEA.

See Administrative Record (“AR”) at 1537. 1 He is medically fragile, non-verbal, wheelchair

bound, and weighs about 40 pounds. See id. at 1444, 1533.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, K.N. worked virtually with a special education teacher.

See id. at 738; see also Hr’g Tr. at 55. Pierre-Noel provided the at-home support he needed to

learn. See AR at 723, 1530. As the 2022 school year drew to a close, Pierre-Noel and school

staff convened in May to discuss his IEP. See id. at 722–37. All agreed that K.N. could return to

school in person in September 2022. See id. at 13, 332. At that time, he would “resume 22.5

hours of specialized instruction hours . . . outside of the general education setting with a

dedicated nurse aide” inside the school building. Id. at 738. The May IEP included a

contingency provision: “[i]f [K.N.] is required to remain home for an extended period due to

medical needs, [he] will receive homebound instruction and the team will develop a plan for

continuation of services.” Id. The IEP also states that no nurse aide will be provided if K.N.

attends virtually. See id.

The transportation section of K.N.’s May IEP explains that he requires a single transport

bus and a nurse on the bus. See id. at 744. K.N.’s apartment building is not handicap-accessible,

so getting him to the bus involves traversing 14 to 20 steps. See id. at 1571; 1645. 2 Pierre-Noel

1

The Administrative Record can be found at ECF Nos. 18–20. It is sealed to protect the

personal identifying information of K.N. The Court will cite all references to the Administrative

Record as “AR at [page],” except for the Hearing Officer’s Determination, which the Court will

cite as “HOD at [page],” and K.N.’s July IEP, which the Court will cite as “IEP at [page],” to

reflect their internal pagination. The hearing officer’s determination is available on the public

docket, see ECF No. 1-1, as is a redacted version of K.N.’s IEP, see ECF No. 4-3.

2

There are two ways to reach Pierre-Noel’s apartment door. Entering through the front door

requires climbing 14 exterior steps and descending about six interior steps. See Hr’g Tr. at 40.

4

suffers from a medical condition that prevents her from carrying K.N. and his wheelchair down

the steps. See id. at 1645. While her husband sometimes carries K.N. out of the apartment, he is

only available on Thursdays and Fridays. See id. at 1573. So she asked for a dedicated aide to

assist K.N. from the threshold of the apartment to the bus and vice versa. See id. at 1115.

According to Pierre-Noel, the aide must place K.N.’s wheelchair at the bottom of a staircase,

hoist K.N. over a shoulder, and walk up and down the steps. See id. at 1573, 1645. In the past,

home care nurses had done this, but K.N. is now too heavy for them. See id. at 1533. 3

The school contacted the District, which transports disabled students. 4 See id. at 1473.

Its Special Education Transportation Policy notes that the District “shall provide special

education transportation services to students with disabilities when transportation is

appropriately identified and documented on an IEP as a related service under the IDEA.” Id. at

1039. That policy specifies that District personnel “will utilize lifts, ramps, or other mechanized

equipment to assist students with wheelchairs.” Id. at 1045. But it explains that the District is

“not responsible for providing physical assistance to student passengers other than providing

occasional non-intrusive assistance that does not require lifting or carrying the student.” Id. If

the District determines that it cannot transport a child, the transportation policy instructs the

Entering through the back door requires climbing 14 interior steps. See id.; see also

https://tinyurl.com/yun8fee9 (video tour of Pierre-Noel’s building).

3

Even in an emergency, home care nurses can “decline to lift and carry [K.N.] up and down the

stairs,” and instead place him in the “safest part of the apartment” before calling 911. Hr’g Tr. at

43. Typically, if Pierre-Noel needs to get K.N. out of the apartment herself, she plans around her

husband’s schedule. See AR at 1573.

4

The District provides transportation through its Office of the State Superintendent of Education

(OSSE). For simplicity, the Court will refer to OSSE as the District. Similarly, under the IDEA

the District is the “State Educational Agency,” or SEA, and the school is the “Local Educational

Agency,” or LEA. In lieu of those acronyms, the Court simply uses “the District” to refer to the

District of Columbia and “the school” to refer to Bridges.

5

school to reconvene the IEP team. See id. In the meantime, the school is “responsible for

providing alternative instructional options.” Id.

After the school reached out, a District investigator visited Pierre-Noel at her apartment

in July 2022. See id. at 1128. He inspected the building and stairs and told her that District

employees are not permitted to enter the apartment building or lift and carry K.N. See id.

Undeterred, Pierre-Noel and the school amended K.N.’s IEP the next day to mandate

those precise services. See IEP at 24, ECF No. 4-3. K.N.’s July IEP thus states that he “requires

assistance to get from his apartment unit door to the bus and from the bus to his apartment unit

door. This assistance includes being carried up and down stairs inside the apartment building as

well as outside the apartment building.” Id. The school included this language in the IEP to

“test whether [the District’s] refusal to provide the support was legally sound.” Bridges Cross-

Mot. for Summ. J. and Opp’n to Pl.’s Mot. for Summ. J. (School MSJ) at 14, ECF No. 25; see

also AR P-2 at 24:00–24:16 (asking parent for information about transportation to see “what we

can do with the IEP to try to push [the District]”).

K.N. was set to resume in-person class on September 20, 2022. See AR at 1507. And the

school retained a dedicated nurse for him to begin that same day. See id. at 1568–69; see also

Hr’g Tr. at 60. But the District maintained that it could not transport K.N. because of the

carrying and lifting required. See AR at 621. Rather, it “can only escort a student from/to the

outermost door of a house or building.” Id. It is undisputed that K.N. could not get to school on

September 20. See, e.g., id. at 1538. That same day, K.N.’s in-school nurse abruptly quit. See

id. at 1568–69; see also Hr’g Tr. at 60. So the school found another nurse by October 4. See AR

at 960, 1541; see also Hr’g Tr. at 60–61. But because K.N. still could not get to school, the

school did not keep that nurse. See AR at 1569–70.

6

From July 2022 to the present, K.N.’s July IEP has remained in effect. It states that

“[t]he Dedicated Nurse Aide will be removed from this IEP as [K.N.] attends virtually. The

Dedicated Nurse Aide will be added back to the IEP upon [K.N.] resuming school in-person.”

IEP at 21. Because K.N. has yet to return to school in person, no nurse has been hired. See Hr’g

Tr. at 61.

Recall that K.N.’s mother supported him during virtual learning last year. See AR at 723,

1530. During the July IEP meeting, she asked whether the school could provide an in-home aide

if K.N. had to learn virtually again that fall. See AR P-22 at 9:10–10:20. The school responded

that it was definitely something they could discuss if K.N. cannot get to school. See id. Pierre-

Noel renewed her request for an in-home aide a month later. See AR at 354. The school

responded similarly: that they “can certainly consider the need for an aide if [K.N.] is not able to

start the school year in person.” Id. After K.N.’s transportation fell through, Pierre-Noel again

requested a dedicated aide to assist with virtual learning. See id. at 361. Eventually, in October,

the IEP team reconvened to discuss K.N.’s virtual learning. At that point, the school provided at-

home support for him, including a one-to-one tutor and a vision specialist. See id. at 1604. But

the team did not amend his IEP to reflect those services. See Hr’g Tr. at 50–51; see also Pl. MSJ

at 42.

By then, it was too late. Pierre-Noel had filed an administrative due process complaint.

See AR at 54–69. She argued that the District and the school denied K.N. a FAPE by failing to

implement the transportation accommodations in his July IEP. See id. at 67. And Pierre-Noel

claimed that the school denied K.N. a FAPE by failing to create an appropriate IEP in July 2022

providing an in-home aide if K.N. cannot return to school. See id. Lastly, Pierre-Noel argued

that the school failed to implement the nursing services K.N. required in school. See id.

7

The hearing officer gave each party a partial victory. First, as to transportation, he

analyzed cases discussing the meaning of “transportation” as a “related service” under the IDEA.

Hr’g Officer Determination (HOD) at 15–17. Ultimately, he decided that “there is no caselaw

authorizing a hearing officer to order [District] personnel to lift and carry students inside their

homes or apartment buildings.” Id. at 19. Still, he ordered the District to “offer [K.N.] bus

transportation with a dedicated nurse and assistance to the front door of his apartment building.”

Id. at 22.

Second, as to whether the July IEP was proper, the officer determined that Pierre-Noel

had shown inadequacy. See id. at 11. He reasoned that the school knew before it created the

July IEP that the District was not going to lift or carry K.N. to allow him to reach the bus. See

id. Thus, “[t]here was ample time [before] the beginning of the school year to reconvene the IEP

meeting and adopt the virtual learning plan that the parties finally agreed to” in October 2022,

which provided in-person support. Id.

Third, as to the school’s alleged failure to provide in-school nursing services, the officer

found that the school has an obligation to provide nursing services. See id. at 12. But he found

that because the District was not providing transportation, “those services could not have been

provided.” Id. Therefore, he found that Pierre-Noel failed to meet her burden. See id.

This lawsuit followed. Before the Court are Pierre-Noel’s motion for summary judgment

and cross-motions from the school and the District. See Pl.’s Mot. for Summ. J. (Pl. MSJ), ECF

No. 22; School MSJ; D.C. Cross-Mot. for Summ. J. and Opp’n to Pl.’s Mot. for Summ. J.

(District MSJ), ECF No. 26. Instead of litigating a preliminary injunction, the parties agreed to

an expedited briefing schedule on the merits. The Court held a hearing during which it allowed

8

Pierre-Noel to present a witness from a private transportation company. All motions are ripe for

decision.

II.

To prevail on a motion for summary judgment, a party must show that “there is no

genuine dispute as to any material fact.” Fed. R. Civ. P. 56(a); see also Anderson v. Liberty

Lobby, Inc., 477 U.S. 242, 247 (1986). A dispute is genuine “if the evidence is such that a

reasonable jury could return a verdict for the nonmoving party.” Anderson, 477 U.S. at 248.

And a disputed fact is material if it could alter the outcome of the suit. See id.

The IDEA permits “any party aggrieved by the findings and decision” of an

administrative hearing officer to sue in federal court. 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(2). The reviewing

court “shall receive the records of the administrative proceedings, [] hear additional evidence at

the request of a party, and . . . grant such relief as the court determines is appropriate.” 20 U.S.C.

§ 1415(i)(2)(C). The Court gives “due weight” to the hearing officer’s determinations. Bd. of

Educ. of Hendrick Hudson Cent. Sch. Dist. v. Rowley, 458 U.S. 176, 206 (1982). But it affords

“less deference than is conventional in administrative proceedings.” Z.B. v. District of

Columbia, 888 F.3d 515, 523 (D.C. Cir. 2018). And a decision “without reasoned and specific

findings deserves little deference.” Id.

This Court also has an independent duty to ensure that it has subject-matter jurisdiction.

See Kaplan v. Cent. Bank of Islamic Repub. of Iran, 896 F.3d 501, 509 (D.C. Cir. 2018). If a

plaintiff lacks standing to press a claim, the Court must dismiss it. See Lujan v. Defs. of Wildlife,

504 U.S. 555, 561–62 (1992).

9

III.

The Court first addresses Pierre-Noel’s transportation claim. Next, it turns to whether the

July IEP was appropriate. Finally, it assesses whether the school failed to implement K.N.’s IEP

when it did not have a nurse present in school while he was learning at home.

A.

Pierre-Noel’s primary argument is that the hearing officer erred in holding that the

District need not lift or carry K.N. to the bus. See Pl. MSJ at 13–38. The District disagrees. See

District MSJ at 9–16.

Recall that after the District inspected K.N.’s residence and told Pierre-Noel it could not

lift or carry him, K.N.’s IEP team included a condition that it must do just that. See AR at 1128;

see also School MSJ at 14. The hearing officer agreed with the District, finding that he lacked

authority to order such a service under the IDEA. See HOD at 19. But the officer also ordered

the District to “immediately offer [K.N.] bus transportation to the front door of [his] apartment

building.” Id. at 22. Based on the Court’s review of the video evidence, delivery of K.N. to the

front door of the building requires climbing 14 steps. See supra note 2; see also Hr’g Tr. at 40

(confirming this point). The officer’s holding thus cannot be squared with his remedy. See Hr’g

Tr. at 41 (Plaintiff agrees that this is a “contradictory” ruling because . . . “[t]here is no way to

avoid those external steps from the . . . front of the building to [the] curb.”); see also id. at 54

(school explaining that every party in the case was confused by the hearing officer’s rationales).

Perhaps the hearing officer meant to order the District to transport K.N. to the back door of the

apartment building, which would not involve traversing steps. But given the logical

10

inconsistency in the hearing officer’s decision, the Court will afford him less deference than

normal on this issue. See Z.B., 888 F.3d at 523. 5

1.

Recall, too, that the IDEA guarantees disabled children certain “related services . . . as

may be required” for them to benefit from special education. 20 U.S.C. § 1401(26)(A). One

such service is “transportation.” Id. Pierre-Noel’s first claim turns on whether “transportation”

in the Act includes carrying a disabled child up and down the stairs of her apartment building. 6

Because transportation is not defined in the statute, “we must give [it] its ordinary

meaning.” Petit v. U.S. Dep’t of Educ., 675 F.3d 769, 781 (D.C. Cir. 2012). Courts often look to

dictionaries to understand ordinary meaning. See, e.g., id. The Court’s review of dictionaries

around the time of the provision’s enactment revealed two possible meanings of transportation. 7

The first is broad: moving a person or thing from one place to another. The second is narrower:

moving a person or thing from one place to another using a means of conveyance, such as a

vehicle.

5

Pierre-Noel criticizes the hearing officer for finding that he “did not have authority” to order

the District to carry K.N. up and down the stairs and contends that his decision could be reversed

on this basis alone. See Pl. MSJ at 14–15. The Court agrees with the general assertion that the

officer has broad equitable discretion over remedies, see, e.g., B.D. v. District of Columbia, 817

F.3d 792, 797–98 (D.C. Cir. 2016), but it disagrees that the officer can order something contrary

to federal law.

6

Pierre-Noel has provided inconsistent evidence about the number of people it would take to

carry K.N. While Pierre-Noel thinks that one person could do it, see, e.g., Pl. MSJ at 16, her

witness—someone who transports disabled children—testified that it would take two people to

get him safely down the stairs, see Hr’g Tr. at 11, 19–20.

7

Congress enacted the relevant text of the related services provision in the 1975 Education for

All Handicapped Children Act. See Pub. L. 94-142, 89 Stat. 775 (1975). In 1990, Congress

renamed the law the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, tweaked certain aspects of the

related services list, and left the transportation language unchanged. See Pub. L. 101-476, 104

Stat. 1103 (1990). So the Court focused on dictionaries from the years around 1975.

11

First, the broad definitions. One dictionary reports that “transportation” is “an act,

process, or instance of being transported” as in “arranging for the transportation of his luggage.”

Transportation, Webster’s New International Dictionary (3d ed. 1961). Another states that

“transportation” is “the act of transporting” and “to transport” is to “carry from one place to

another; convey.” Transportation and Transport, The American Heritage Dictionary of the

English Language (1976); Accord Transportation, Oxford English Dictionary (2d ed. 1989)

(“Transportation” is the “action or process of transporting; conveyance (of things or person)

from one place to another.”) Thus, one sense of transportation is the act of moving a person or

thing from one place to another.

Second, the narrower definitions. One dictionary defines transportation as “the removal

of goods or persons from one place to another by a carrier.” Transportation, Black’s Law

Dictionary (4th ed. 1968). A “carrier” is “one undertaking to transport persons or property.”

Carrier, Black’s Law Dictionary (4th ed. 1968). “In common speech carriers means

transportation systems . . . [a] school bus acts as a carrier.” Id. (cleaned up). Another dictionary

defines transportation as a “means of conveyance or travel from one place to another.”

Transportation, Webster’s New Collegiate Dictionary (7th ed. 1963). These definitions are

similar in that they speak of a “carrier” or a “means of conveyance”—a thing, such as a school

bus, that does the transporting.

The service Pierre-Noel requests—humans lifting and carrying her child up and down

steps—may be encompassed by the first definition. But it flunks the second definition. So

dictionaries alone do not answer the question of whether lifting and carrying someone fits within

the ordinary meaning of transportation. Thus, the Court must look to other sources.

12

The IDEA’s implementing regulations are helpful. They explain that transportation

“includes travel to and from school and between schools” and “specialized equipment (such as

special or adapted buses, lifts, and ramps), if required to provide special transportation for a child

with a disability.” 34 C.F.R. § 300.34(c)(16). Travel “to and from” school and “between”

schools is also capacious. But coupled with the “specialized equipment” portion of the

definition, the regulation evokes a mode of transport—such as a bus or car—that can be adapted

to meet a disabled child’s needs. The regulatory definition thus supports the narrower batch of

dictionary definitions that reference a carrier or means of conveyance.

Things become even clearer when the Court looks to a related statute, the Americans

With Disabilities Act (ADA), 42 U.S.C. § 12101 et seq. Courts “normally presume[] that the

same language in related statutes carries a consistent meaning.” United States v. Davis, 139 S.

Ct. 2319, 2329 (2019); see also Antonin Scalia & Bryan Garner, Reading Law: The

Interpretation of Legal Texts 252 (2012) (“[L]aws dealing with the same subject . . . should if

possible be interpreted harmoniously.”). While the ADA protects a broader class of people—all

disabled Americans—it also applies to disabled schoolchildren. See Fry v. Napoleon Cmty.

Schs., 580 U.S. 154, 157, 161 (2017) (noting this fact). Indeed, the IDEA’s exhaustion provision

contemplates that a disabled student might sue under both laws seeking similar relief. See 20

U.S.C. § 1415(l) (requiring exhaustion of the IDEA’s procedures before a student sues under the

ADA “seeking relief that is also available” under the IDEA).

The ADA is illuminating. In a section addressing public transportation, the Act defines

“public school transportation” as “transportation by school bus vehicles of schoolchildren,

personnel, and equipment to and from a public elementary or secondary school and school-

related activities.” 42 U.S.C. § 12141(5). Likewise, the ADA defines “designated public

13

transportation” as “transportation (other than public school transportation) by bus, rail, or any

other conveyance . . . that provides the general public with general or special service . . . on a

regular and continuing basis.” Id. § 12141(2). Both definitions contemplate transportation by a

vehicle or mode of transport such as a bus, rail, or other conveyance.

Reading “transportation” in the IDEA similarly “yields sensibly congruent applications

across . . . [this] other statute[].” Davis, 139 S. Ct. at 2329. The ADA’s definition thus leads the

Court to privilege the second, narrower set of dictionary definitions just discussed. In other

words, “transportation” involves “a carrier” or a “means of conveyance”—such as a bus or

train—moving a person from place to place. See supra. This definition also gels with the

regulatory definition of transportation, which points to “special or adapted buses, lifts, and

ramps.” 34 C.F.R. § 300.34(c)(16). Buses to which lifts and ramps may be attached are

obviously a carrier or a mode of conveyance. But two people carrying someone is not. In short,

the Court is persuaded that the service Pierre-Noel requests—physical carrying and lifting of a

disabled child—is not encompassed within the plain meaning of transportation.

2.

Another interpretative tool bolsters this reading. Although dictionaries, regulations, and

other statutes provide a useful starting point, “[b]ecause common words typically have more than

one meaning, [courts] must use the context in which a given word appears to determine its aptest,

most likely sense.” Scalia & Garner at 418. To better understand the ordinary meaning of

transportation, the Court also looks to how it has customarily been used.

Courts may assess the customary usage of a phrase by searching relevant databases of

naturally occurring language. This method is known as corpus linguistics. “Corpus linguistics is

an empirical approach to the study of language that uses large, electronic databases” of language

14

gathered from primary sources. Thomas R. Lee & Stephen C. Mouritsen, Judging Ordinary

Meaning, 127 Yale L.J. 788, 828 (2018); see also Lawrence B. Solum, Triangulating Public

Meaning: Corpus Linguistics, Immersion, and the Constitutional Record, 2017 B.Y.U. L. Rev.

1621, 1643–49 (2017) (explaining how the method helps clarify linguistic meaning). Indeed,

corpus linguistics is especially valuable “in those difficult cases where . . . dictionaries diverge

[because it] can serve as a cross-check on established methods of interpretation (and vice

versa).” Wilson v. Safelite Grp., Inc., 930 F.3d 429, 440 (6th Cir. 2019) (Thapar, J., concurring

in part and concurring in the judgment). 8

Many databases are available. See, e.g., https://www.english-corpora.org (listing some

spanning different time periods and genres). So courts must choose wisely. The best database

will contain texts from around the time of the Act’s enactment with which an ordinary English

speaker would regularly interact. Cf. United States v. Rice, 36 F.4th 578, 583 n.6 (4th Cir. 2022)

(choosing a corpus based on these criteria). To analyze customary usage of transportation, the

Court searched the Corpus of Historical American English (COHA), which collects sources

across genres, including fiction, magazines, newspapers, and academic articles between 1820

and 2019.

8

Other courts have deployed corpus-based approaches to textual meaning. For example, Justice

Breyer, writing for the Court, adopted a corpus-based approach to illuminate the meaning of the

phrase “carries a firearm.” See Muscarello v. United States, 524 U.S. 125, 128–31 (1998)

(recounting the phrase in context from dictionaries, literature, and newspaper articles). Other

courts have conducted similar analyses using publicly available databases. See, e.g., United

States v. Rice, 36 F.4th 578, 583 n.6 (4th Cir. 2022); Health Freedom Def. Fund, Inc. v. Biden,

599 F. Supp. 3d 1144, 1160–61 (M.D. Fla. 2022); United States v. Seefried, No. 21-cr-287, 2022

WL 16528415, at *5–6 (D.D.C. Oct. 29, 2022).

15

The Court queried the COHA for mentions of “transportation” between 1965 and 1975,

the decade before and including the year in which Congress enacted the related services

provision. Cf. Safelite, 930 F.3d at 444 (Thapar, J., concurring in part and concurring in the

judgment) (looking to a ten-year period to generate a sample of written text around the time

Congress passed the relevant language). This search returned 1135 hits, or “concordance lines.”

Given this large universe, the Court reviewed a random sample of 288 hits to see whether

“transportation” customarily referred to certain things. This sample size produces a 95%

confidence interval. A random sample can be generated through the database itself.

The results are illuminating. The most common referent, with 30.6% of the hits, was

systems of transportation. See Attach. A. 9 These include highway systems, subway systems,

railroads, and mass transit generally. For example, a 1972 News Chicago article discusses

“transportation thru [sic] mass transit lines.” Id. at 7. And many others reference “mass

transportation” in general. See, e.g., id. at 7, 14, 15.

The second most common referent, with 25% of hits, was vehicular travel. See generally

id. Vehicles mentioned include cars, buses, trains, boats, airplanes, and even a rocket. See, e.g.,

id. at 3, 10, 13, 17, 18. The next most common referent, with 20.4% of hits, is to what might be

called the “industry of transportation.” Examples include transportation companies, strikes

against them, railroad unions, or the movement of products in commerce. See, e.g., id. at 4, 7,

13. A category with a similar number of hits, clocking in at 21.2%, is references to an agency or

entity involved with transportation. See generally id. These include mentions of the Department

9

The Court’s random sample and analysis of each concordance line is appended as Attachment

A. Because COHA pulls from primary sources, the reader may notice small typos or stray

characters in some entries. The Court reproduced the text as it appears in the database.

16

of Transportation, analogous state agencies, the Secretary of Transportation, and national boards

overseeing transportation. See, e.g., id. at 5, 11, 15, 31. 10

The Court categorized a few hits (1.7%) as “ambiguous,” meaning that there was no clear

or implied referent to the term “transportation.” See id. at 1, 4, 15, 17, 23. And it found 3 hits

(1%) in which transportation has the broad meaning of moving something or someone from one

place to another. See id. at 13, 25, 28. While these entries accord with the broad dictionary

definitions of transportation, they appear to be outliers given the rest of the sample. Finally, and

most critically, the Court found no references to any form of pedestrian travel—transporting

something by walking with it or carrying it.

This is not to say that because transportation most often referred to a system, type of

vehicle, agency, or the overall industry means that it takes on that meaning in all contexts.

Perhaps transportation could include some form of pedestrian transit, despite not appearing in the

sample. But this corpus analysis confirms that such usage would be highly anomalous. Put

simply, people did not use the term “transportation” the way Pierre-Noel suggests when the

IDEA was enacted. Transportation involves a means of conveyance—such as a vehicle, subway

system, or railroad—moving people or things from one place to another.

3.

Yet another consideration militates against Pierre-Noel’s preferred interpretation of the

term “transportation.” In Arlington Central School District Board of Education v. Murphy, the

Supreme Court considered whether the IDEA’s attorneys’ fees provision allows prevailing

parents to recover fees for services rendered by experts. See 548 U.S. 291 (2006). The Court

10

Many hits could be classified into two of these four categories. The Court calculated its

percentages based on the primary category it thought best described each source.

17

reasoned that its resolution of the case “is guided by the fact that Congress enacted the IDEA

pursuant to the Spending Clause.” Id. at 295. Such legislation is essentially a contract between

Congress (which provides funding) and the States (which choose to accept it in some cases). See

id. And because “recipients of federal funds must accept them voluntarily and knowingly,” any

conditions Congress attaches to a State’s acceptance of funds “must be set out unambiguously.”

Id. at 296; see also Pennhurst State Sch. & Hosp. v. Halderman, 451 U.S. 1, 17 (1981) (“[I]f

Congress intends to impose a condition on the grant of federal moneys, it must do so

unambiguously.”).

Thus, this Court must “view the IDEA from the perspective of a state official who is

engaged in the process of deciding whether the State should accept IDEA funds and the

obligations that go with those funds.” Murphy, 548 U.S. at 296. In other words, this objective

test asks, “whether the IDEA furnishes clear notice regarding the liability at issue in this case.”

Id. Accord McAllister v. District of Columbia, 794 F.3d 15, 18–19 (D.C. Cir. 2015) (applying

this test to hold that parents could not recover fees for paralegal services under the IDEA’s

attorneys’ fees provision).

Other courts have rejected interpretations of the IDEA for similar reasons. For example,

in Osseo Area Schools, Independent School District Number 279 v. M.N.B. ex rel. J.B., the

Eighth Circuit reasoned that no provision of the IDEA—including the transportation provision—

put States on notice that it must reimburse a parent for certain driving expenses. See 970 F.3d

917, 922 (8th Cir. 2020). In that case, a student’s IEP required that she be “transported

individually to and from school”—a service her mother provided and for which she received

reimbursement. Id. at 920. But after the mother transferred the student to another school, the

former school district refused to fully reimburse her for the extra mileage. See id. at 920. The

18

Eighth Circuit analyzed the IDEA through Murphy’s Spending Clause lens and concluded that it

does not provide notice regarding mileage reimbursement. See id. at 922.

Though the facts here differ from those two cases, the same reasoning applies. The Court

must ask whether the IDEA’s mention of transportation puts a reasonable government official on

notice that lifting and carrying a student is required. It does not. Based on the Court’s textual

analysis, transportation is the act of conveying students to their schools using a carrier or a mode

of transport such as a bus.

More, the regulations contemplate service to and from school, including specialized

equipment. See 34 C.F.R. § 300.34(c)(16). As the District noted, they say nothing about

“services in and around the home” or “special assistance getting to and from the school bus.”

Hr’g Tr. at 63. The Court sees nothing in the IDEA or its regulations providing clear notice to

the District that it must carry a student up and down stairs inside and outside an apartment

building to the bus.

Pierre-Noel suggests that the District was on notice that the IDEA might require lifting

and carrying when it issued its transportation policy in 2013. See id. at 21–22. She notes that the

District explicitly disclaimed its obligation to lift or carry disabled students, citing health and

safety concerns. See AR at 1045. Pierre-Noel argues that this language shows that the District

knew it might have to provide these services, so it wanted to “preemptively get out in front of

that [and] put in the policy we are not going to do it.” Hr’g Tr. at 22.

The Court disagrees. The Spending Clause analysis asks the Court to consider whether a

reasonable state official would think “transportation” includes lifting or carrying a student. And

in any event, the opposite inference from Pierre-Noel’s is equally plausible—the District did not

think that the IDEA required such a service, so it proactively informed parents about the services

19

it had to provide. Indeed, the fact that the District prohibited any carrying or lifting of students

while pledging to provide bus transportation, including lifts and other specialized equipment,

shows that it was closely tracking the IDEA’s meaning and implementing regulations. See, e.g.,

AR at 1040 (transportation policy cites 34 C.F.R. § 300.34(a) in explaining what it has to

provide); AR at 1115 (District explained that it would provide “a transport chair to transition

to/from the school bus . . . to ensure safe transition onto the bus[.]”).

4.

Pierre-Noel raises a few additional arguments on the transportation issue. None is

persuasive. First, Pierre-Noel at times construes her transportation claim as a “failure to

implement” claim—which assess whether the school materially deviated from the IEP’s terms.

See, e.g., Pl. MSJ at 20–22; Hr’g Tr. at 45. The core of Pierre-Noel’s argument here is that

because the lifting and carrying service is enumerated in the IEP, the IDEA must require

someone to provide it. See, e.g., Pl. MSJ at 20–21. Not so. While IEPs help tailor special

education and related services to the unique needs of a disabled child, see, e.g., Endrew F., 580

U.S. at 391, their terms cannot override federal law. Thus, the question is not whether the school

failed to implement the IEP’s terms, but whether the terms of the IEP exceed the scope of the

District’s responsibilities under the IDEA.

Second, Pierre-Noel argues that if the District does not have to carry K.N. to the bus, the

school does. See Pl. MSJ at 34–38. But this claim lacks a foundation in law. The Court’s

holding that the IDEA does not mandate carrying K.N. to the bus applies with equal force to the

school as a related-service provider. And in any event, the school appears to be relieved from all

transportation obligations (even assuming carrying a student to the bus were included). Under

the IDEA, a State

20

shall use the payments that otherwise would have been available to a [school] . . . to

provide special education and related services directly to children with disabilities . . . if

the [State] determines that the . . . children . . . can best be served by a regional or State

program or service delivery system designed to meet the needs of such children[.]”

20 U.S.C. § 1413(g)(1). In other words, the District may decide that it—rather than individual

schools—can best provide a related to service to the disabled children within its jurisdiction.

The District confirms that it has chosen this route. See District MSJ at 10–11; see also AR at

1473–74. It must therefore provide transportation “in such manner . . . as [it] considers

appropriate” in compliance with the IDEA. 20 U.S.C. § 1413(g)(2).

The Court sees nothing in this language that preserves a role for the school once the State

has decided to provide a related service. See Pl. MSJ at 37 (making this argument). More, the

District’s transportation policy provides: “It is the expectation of [the District] that all [schools]

adhere to this Policy.” AR at 1039. In other words, the school would contravene District policy

even if it volunteered to transport K.N. for free. The best reading of § 1413(g) is that

reimbursement under the IDEA may be available to schools for related services, but if the State

decides it can deliver the service better, it assumes the responsibility (and receives the funding).

Third, exhaustion. Pierre-Noel argues that the District cannot now challenge the

transportation condition in the IEP because it failed to exhaust this claim through the IDEA’s

processes. See Pl. Reply at 13. The District argues that it need not exhaust a defense that lifting

and carrying falls outside the meaning of the IDEA’s related services provision. See District

Reply at 3–4, ECF No. 30. The Court agrees.

The IDEA provides: “[B]efore the filing of a civil action . . . the procedures under

subsections (f) . . . shall be exhausted.” 20 U.S.C. § 1415(l). Phrased in the passive voice, it

does not specify who must exhaust. Cf. Bartenwerfer v. Buckley, 143 S. Ct. 665, 672 (2023)

21

(“Passive voice pulls the actor off the stage.”). But subsection (f) clarifies. It states that “parents

or the [school] involved in [a due process] complaint shall have an opportunity for an impartial

due process hearing[.]” 20 U.S.C. § 1415(f)(1)(A). So the exhaustion provision most naturally

refers to parents or a school. Cf. Bartenwerfer, 143 S. Ct. at 672 (“[C]ontext can confine a

passive-voice sentence to a likely set of actors.”); accord Fry, 580 U.S. at 157–58 (noting that

the “plaintiff bringing suit . . . must first exhaust the IDEA’s administrative procedures.”).

As the Sixth Circuit recently explained, the IDEA’s exhaustion requirement recognizes

that three laws allow disabled children to seek relief for difficulties encountered at school. See

Doe ex rel. K.M. v. Knox Cnty. Bd. of Educ., 56 F.4th 1076, 1080 (6th Cir. 2023). That history

matters because “the IDEA now allows parents to pursue overlapping claims under the ADA or

Rehabilitation Act, but they must complete the IDEA’s administrative process if they are

‘seeking relief that is also available under’ that law.” Id. (quoting 20 U.S.C. § 1415(l)). Thus,

cabining the IDEA’s exhaustion provision to parents and schools accords with the Act’s text and

structure. 11

* * *

No party (nor the hearing officer) has engaged in close textual analysis of the IDEA.

And the parties make only passing references to the interpretative gloss required for Spending

11

Pierre-Noel gestured to subsection (b)(6) during the motions hearing, see Hr’g Tr. at 47,

which states that “any party [may] present a complaint . . . with respect to any matter relating to

. . . the provision of a free appropriate public education to such child; and “which sets forth an

alleged violation that occurred not more than 2 years before the date the parent or public agency

knew or should have known about the alleged action,” 20 U.S.C. § 1415(b)(6). “Any party” thus

refers to a “parent” or a “public agency.” While it is true that the District is a state educational

agency, and thus could be a public agency, that interpretation renders (b)(6) inconsistent with the

exhaustion provision itself. As discussed, the exhaustion subsection cites (f), which only

suggests that a parent or school could exhaust. The only role contemplated for the District in (f)

is that it may conduct due process hearings, as determined by State law. See id. § 1415(f)(1)(A).

22

Clause statutes. The District largely relies on its transportation policy, which states that it will

provide transportation using lifts, ramps, and other mechanized equipment for disabled students,

but that it will not lift or carry them. See District MSJ at 11–13. As discussed, the District’s

policy accords with the Court’s reading of transportation. 12 For her part, Pierre-Noel’s primary

arguments are rooted in cases interpreting the phrase “supportive service” in the “related

services” provision. See, e.g., Pl. MSJ at 18, 20–24. The Court addresses these arguments next.

B.

Pierre-Noel argues that the lifting and carrying she seeks is a “supportive service.” Pl.

MSJ at 25–26; see also Hr’g Tr. at 24. “[S]upportive services” is further defined by a

parenthetical listing various types—“speech pathology and audiology services, interpreting

services, psychological services . . . [and] counseling services, including rehabilitation

counseling, orientation and mobility services[.]” 20 U.S.C. § 1401(26)(A). Nothing in the

enumerated list resembles lifting or carrying a student to a bus from his residence before the

school day begins. More, the IDEA’s implementing regulations also define these services, and

none relate to lifting or carrying students. See 34 C.F.R. § 300.34(c)(1–15).

Recall that the phrase “supportive services” also falls at the end of a list: “transportation,

and such developmental, corrective, and other supportive services.” 20 U.S.C. § 1401(26)(A).

While “other supportive services” may be broad if read in isolation, see Pl. MSJ at 25, the

12

The District does not ask the Court to defer to this policy as a reasonable interpretation of the

IDEA, and in any event it appears to be non-binding guidance. But the soundness of the

District’s policy as a safety measure is borne out in this case. Even Pierre-Noel testified below

that K.N. tends to “squirm” and “hyper extends his back,” so whoever is carrying him has to

“really hold him firmly” so that neither he nor they get hurt. AR at 1577. More, Pierre-Noel’s

witness offering to provide private transportation testified that he would not carry K.N. in the

way Pierre-Noel wanted—over the shoulder outside of his wheelchair—because of safety

concerns. See Hr’g Tr. at 11, 19–20.

23

preceding words cabin it. The canon ejusdem generis instructs that “[w]here general words

follow an enumeration of two or more things, they apply only to persons or things of the same

general kind or class specifically mentioned.” Scalia & Garner at 199; see also Circuit City

Stores, Inc. v. Adams, 532 U.S. 105, 114–15 (2001) (applying this canon to “seamen, railroad

employees, or any other class of workers engaged in foreign or interstate commerce”). Where

“other” precedes a general term at the end of a list, the canon “implies the addition of similar

after the word other.” Scalia & Garner at 199.

So the class of “other supportive services” are those similar in kind to “developmental”

and “corrective” services provided to disabled students. These terms most naturally refer to

services provided to help disabled students develop (physically or mentally) and correct things

with which they may be struggling. See, e.g., Development, Webster’s New Collegiate

Dictionary (7th ed. 1963) (cross-referencing “developmental” and defining “development” as the

“act, process, or result of developing”); Corrective and Correct, The American Heritage

Dictionary of the English Language (1976) (defining corrective as “tending or intending to

correct,” and “correct” as “[t]o remove, remedy, or counteract”). Pierre-Noel does not show that

the lifting or carrying she requests is something that helps K.N. develop or that corrects

something with which he struggles.

K.N.’s own IEP is good evidence of what “other supportive services” means. A section

entitled “motor skills/physical development,” for example, details the supports he needs during

the school day to progress. IEP at 16–17. 13 Similarly, a section entitled “Blind/Visually

13

Plaintiff’s counsel also suggested during the motions hearing that lifting and carrying K.N.

falls with a “mobility service”—one of the enumerated “other supportive services.” Hr’g Tr. at

24; 20 U.S.C. § 1401(26)(A). The IDEA’s implementing regulations define “orientation and

mobility services” as “services provided to blind or visually impaired children by qualified

personnel to enable those students to attain systematic orientation to and safe movement within

24

Impaired” explains that K.N. requires “supports to assist [him] with using his eyes to visually

attend to objects and people.” Id. at 3; see also id. at 4 (explaining that K.N. requires access to

“services to support his communication, mobility[,] and positioning in the classroom and school

(e.g. stander and Rifton chair with wheels)”). The Court finds that lifting and carrying K.N. up

and down stairs to get him to the bus is not an “other supportive service” under the IDEA.

Pierre-Noel does not argue that the District must lift and carry K.N. based on the text of

“other supportive services.” Instead, she points to various cases interpreting that statutory

language broadly to further the IDEA’s purpose. See, e.g., Pl. MSJ at 22–24; Pl. Reply at 4–6.

In Irving Independent School District v. Tatro, for example, the Supreme Court held that

changing a student’s catheter during the school day to drain her bladder ever three to four hours

qualified as a “supportive service . . . required to assist a handicapped child to benefit from

special education.” 468 U.S. 883, 890 (1984). The Court reached that result by deferring to a

Department of Education regulation explaining that catheterization is a related service. See id. at

890 n.7, 891. It also noted that its reading furthered the IDEA’s purpose to “make public

education available to handicapped children.” Id. The Court reasoned that, based on this

purpose, catheterization “permit[s] a child to remain at school during the day” and is “no less

related to the effort to educate than are services that enable the child to reach, enter, or exit the

school.” Id. Pierre-Noel seizes on the “reach, enter, or exit the school” dicta to argue that the

District must carry K.N. up and down stairs to the school bus. See, e.g., Pl. MSJ at 22.

their environments in school, home, and community.” 34 C.F.R. § 300.34(c)(7). It also

references teaching students to use a cane, service animal, or spatial or environmental awareness

to navigate. See id. No service involves lifting or carrying a student—indeed, most aim to help

the student move on his own—so this argument is unpersuasive.

25

Similarly, in Cedar Rapids Community School District v. Garret F. ex rel. Charlene F.,

the Supreme Court held that providing continuous, one-on-one nursing services to a ventilator-

dependent student qualified as a “supportive service.” 526 U.S. 66, 73 (1999). The Court began

by noting the broad nature of the related services provision. See id. Then, relying on Tatro, the

Court reasoned that “[a]s a general matter, services that enable a disabled child to remain in

school during the day provide the student with the meaningful access to education that Congress

envisioned.” Id. One reading of this broad dicta, which Pierre-Noel favors, is that a State must

provide any supportive service if it enables a child to attend school. See Pl. MSJ at 22–23.

Justice Thomas dissented in Cedar Rapids. He explained that Tatro “cannot be squared

with the text of [the] IDEA” and even assuming it could be, it “ignores the constitutionally

mandated rules of construction applicable” to Spending Clause statutes. Cedar Rapids, 526 U.S.

at 79 (Thomas, J., dissenting).

This dissent was prescient. In Murphy, the Court confirmed that the IDEA should be

interpreted as a Spending Clause statute. See 548 U.S. at 295–96. That is, courts must look for

clear statements in the text before imposing requirements on states. See id. This the Tatro and

Cedar Rapids Courts did not do. More, neither opinion considered the meaning of

“transportation” as a related service, which is really what Pierre-Noel requests here. See, e.g., Pl.

MSJ at 16–22; IEP at 24, 27 (listing the lifting and carrying requirement in the transportation

section of the document). Finally, both cases involved “supportive services” provided during the

school day. See Tatro, 468 US. at 886; Cedar Rapids, 526 U.S. at 73. Pierre-Noel requests

services outside of school hours, in her private apartment building. Taken to its logical

conclusion, her reading of “supportive services” could encompass many other preconditions to a

child arriving at school, such as getting him out of bed. See Hr’g Tr. at 32–33 (Plaintiff’s

26

counsel conceding that such a service would be included within her interpretation of the statute).

The IDEA’s provision of related services that “may be required” for a child to receive a FAPE

cannot be stretched so far. For these reasons, the Court finds that Tatro and Cedar Rapids do not

control this case.

Pierre-Noel also relies on Petit v. U.S. Department of Education, 675 F.3d 769 (D.C. Cir.

2012), to argue that “related services” in general should be interpreted “by reference to services

that must be provided in order to get students to, or keep students in, school.” Pl. MSJ at 22. In

Petit, the Circuit analyzed whether “audiology services” in the related services provision

required a school to help children optimize their surgically implanted hearing aids. 675 F.3d at

771. The Department of Education had issued regulations stating that such a service was not

required as a related service because the Act excludes assistance with “a medical device that is

surgically implanted.” Id. The court, deferring under Chevron step two, held that the regulations

permissibly construed “audiology services,” which it found was ambiguous. See id. at 780–87.

Petit, like Tatro and Cedar Rapids, does not interpret the meaning of transportation as a related

service, or even other supportive services—Pierre-Noel’s alternative argument. So it has little

bearing on the Court’s reasoning.

Finally, Pierre-Noel argues that this Court should follow District of Columbia v. Ramirez.

See, e.g., Pl. MSJ at 17–22; Pl. Reply at 7–9, ECF No. 28. In Ramirez, Judge Bates held that the

District had to provide a disabled student transportation from his apartment door to the bus, no

matter the number of steps involved. See 377 F. Supp. 2d 63, 65 (D.D.C. 2005). Ramirez is

distinguishable for two reasons. First, the court’s reasoning largely turned on the language of a

prior District directive, which stated that disabled students “shall be picked up and dropped off

either at the door of their residence, or at the curbside of their residence.” Id. at 66. Given that

27

language, the court upheld the hearing officer’s finding that “it was not unreasonable for [the

District] to bear responsibility for transporting [the student] from the door of his family’s

apartment to the school bus.” Id. at 70; see also id. at 69 (deferring to the hearing officer’s

finding that the District “is not foreclosed from” carrying a student). That directive is no longer

valid, see District MSJ at 13, and as explained, this Court is not affording the hearing officer

similar deference as was appropriate in Ramirez.

Second, because Ramirez was decided before the Supreme Court’s decision in Murphy,

the court did not consider the implication of Spending Clause interpretative principles. See

Ramirez, 377 F. Supp. 2d at 68–70. For the reasons already discussed, the Court believes

Murphy is key to the analysis here. The Court therefore rejects Pierre-Noel’s arguments

grounded in Ramirez.

* * *

The Court acknowledges the many challenges that both Pierre-Noel and K.N. face due to

his disability, compounded by Pierre-Noel’s disability. But as the D.C. Circuit explained in

Petit, “the Supreme Court has refused to interpret free appropriate public education to require the

furnishing of every special service necessary to maximize each handicapped child’s potential.”

675 F.3d at 783. Instead, the Court has “made clear that the Act guarantees a substantively

adequate program of education to all eligible children.” Endrew F., 580 U.S. at 394. If Pierre-

Noel decides that the homebound instruction the school provides in accordance with K.N.’s IEP

is inadequate, she has other options. She could arrange for private lifting services, seek

assistance from another public program, move to an ADA-compliant home, or arrange for her

husband to carry K.N. But the IDEA does not oblige the District to carry K.N. up and down

residential stairs to the bus.

28

C.

Pierre-Noel next argues that the hearing officer rightly found that the July IEP was

inappropriate, but he erred by failing to order the school to fix it. See Pl. MSJ at 40–43. The

school claims that the officer erred when he found the July IEP inappropriate at the outset. See

School MSJ at 16–21. Pierre-Noel is correct.

Recall that the hearing officer found the July IEP inappropriate because it did not include

in-person tutoring while K.N. would be learning at home. See HOD at 10–11. The officer found

that the school knew more than a month before the July IEP meeting that the District would

refuse to carry K.N. up and down stairs. See id. at 11. Thus, the officer reasoned that there was

time before K.N. was supposed to start in September to reconvene the IEP team and adopt the

learning plan that the parties agreed to in October. See id. That plan—which is still in place—

now provides an in-person tutor for K.N. three hours a day, five days a week, and a vision

specialist for one hour every Wednesday. See id. at 8.

Though the Court ultimately agrees with the hearing officer’s bottom line, it again gives

his decision little deference. First, as Pierre-Noel points out, despite finding that the IEP was

inappropriate, the officer did not order the school to fix it. See id. at 11, 22; see also Pl. MSJ at

16, 44–47. Second, the decision contains an incorrect factual premise. It states: “It is

uncontroverted that [K.N.]’s least restrictive environment is a general education classroom with

10 hours of specialized instruction outside general education.” HOD at 11. Not so. K.N.’s IEP

provides that his least restrictive environment is “specialized instruction outside of the general

education setting with a dedicated nurse aide.” IEP at 22; see also School MSJ at 18 (“The

student’s IEP has never proposed placement in a general education classroom.”). Third, the

29

officer does not explain how Pierre-Noel met her initial burden of production in front of him.

See HOD at 10–11. 14

Recall that “special education” under the IDEA is “specially designed instruction . . . to

meet the unique needs of a child with a disability.” 20 U.S.C. § 1401(29). To ensure that a child

receives that instruction, his IEP must describe the services provided that enable him to advance

and attain appropriate goals. See id. § 1414(d)(1)(A)(i)(IV). The “key inquiry regarding an

IEP’s substantive adequacy is whether, taking account of what the school knew or reasonably

should have known of a student’s needs at the time, the IEP it offered was reasonably calculated

to enable the specific student’s progress.” Z.B., 888 F.3d at 524. While this Court evaluates the

IEP when it was created, “evidence that post-dates the creation of an IEP” can be “relevant to . . .

whether the IEP was objectively reasonable at the time it was promulgated.” Id. (cleaned up).

Pierre-Noel argues that without in-person support at home, K.N. cannot access his

curriculum or receive a meaningful education because of his complex medical needs. See Hr’g

Tr. at 50–51; see also Pl. MSJ at 40–42. And the school conceded that it knew this fact when it

drafted his IEP. See Hr’g Tr. at 54 (“There was never any dispute from Bridges that the student

required in-person support if he was going to be learning at home”). Indeed, in the

administrative proceedings, the school’s own witness testified that K.N. needs in-person support

when learning from home. See id.; see also AR at 1608 (school’s witness testifying that K.N.

needs to be moved into various positions for virtual learning). But the school maintains that the

14

In due process hearings involving challenges to a child’s IEP, the party bringing the challenge

bear the initial burden of production to establish a prima facie case. See D.C. Code § 38-

2571.03(6)(A)(i). Here, that was Pierre-Noel. If she meets her burden, then the school “shall

hold the burden of persuasion on the appropriateness of the existing [IEP].” Id.; see also W.S. v.

District of Columbia, 502 F. Supp. 3d 102, 120–21 (D.D.C. 2020). Given the school’s

concessions at the motions hearing about an in-person aide, the Court will not delve into whether

the parties met these burdens before the hearing officer.

30

broad language in the IEP—that the “team will develop a plan for continuation of services,” IEP

at 21—is appropriate because it afforded the school flexibility, see Hr’g Tr. at 56; see also

School MSJ at 20.

The Court agrees with Pierre-Noel that the IEP should have included a provision for an

in-person aide given K.N.’s unique challenges when learning from home. While the IEP’s

language may have given the school flexibility, it did not adequately specify the special

education and related services that K.N. would require at home. Indeed, the record reflects that

Pierre-Noel first asked for an in-home aide at the July IEP meeting. See AR P-22 at 9:10–10:20.

And the school responded that they could discuss it if K.N. could not get to school in the fall.

See id. But the school knew that K.N. could not reach school because of the transportation issue

as early as July after the District’s inspector visited the apartment building.

More, as all parties acknowledge, the school has been providing K.N. an in-person tutor

for three hours a day, five days a week, and a vision specialist every Wednesday for one hour

since mid-October. See HOD at 8; see also AR at 1603–04. The post-hoc provision of these

services suggests that the IEP was not reasonable at the time it was written. See Z.B., 888 F.3d at

524. Indeed, the school could have reconvened the IEP team much earlier to ensure that these

same backup services were in place by K.N.’s first day of school.

For these reasons, the Court finds that the July IEP was inappropriate. It will grant

Pierre-Noel summary judgment on this claim and order the school to convene an IEP team to

amend the IEP’s language to include K.N.’s in-person services. Cf. Reid ex rel. Reid, 401 F.3d

516, 526 (D.C. Cir. 2005) (noting court may fashion an equitable remedy for denial of a FAPE);

see also Pl. MSJ at 42–43 (requesting this precise relief).

31

D.

Pierre-Noel’s final argument is that the hearing officer should have found the school

liable for failing to provide a nurse in school as required by his IEP. The hearing officer’s

reasoning on this issue is terse. In sum, he found that the school did not have a nurse ready for

the first two weeks when K.N. was scheduled to return to school. See HOD at 12. But since

K.N. never reached school because of the transportation dispute, the officer found that he was

never denied a FAPE. See id.

The Court agrees with this conclusion. The school has never disputed its obligation to

provide K.N. a nurse when he returns to school. See, e.g., School MSJ at 15–16 (“Bridges stands

ready to staff and onboard a nurse as soon as there is an agreement on when [K.N.] will return to

school in person”); Hr’g Tr. at 61. In fact, the record reflects that the school identified a nurse

before K.N.’s September start date, and tried to set up a time for Pierre-Noel to meet with her to

discuss logistics. See AR at 1568–69. After that nurse abruptly quit, the school found another

nurse who was able to start in short order. See id. at 1569. But none of this mattered because

from July 2022 onward, K.N. never made it to the bus to get to school.

More, recall that K.N.’s July IEP is still in effect. It states: “The Dedicated Nurse Aide

will be removed from this IEP as K.N. attends virtually. The Dedicated Nurse Aide will be

added back to the IEP upon resuming school in person.” IEP at 21. Recognizing this, the

hearing officer ordered the school to have a nurse available to K.N. when he resumes in-person

instruction. See HOD at 22. While Pierre-Noel argues that the school materially deviated from

K.N.’s IEP and thus failed to provide him a FAPE, see Pl. MSJ at 38, the school has followed the

IEP to the letter as to the dedicated nurse aide, see School MSJ at 15–16. Cf. Johnson v. District

of Columbia, 962 F. Supp. 2d 263 (D.D.C. 2013) (failure to provide special education teacher

32

was not failure to implement IEP because the school will be able to provide one by the time

student needs it). And suggesting that the Court should order the school to provide an in-school

nurse when it knows K.N. cannot get there is preposterous.

In any event, Pierre-Noel lacks standing to press this claim now. To sue in federal court,

a plaintiff must show that she has suffered an injury traceable to the challenged action of the

defendant, and that it is likely to be redressed by a favorable decision. See Spokeo v. Robbins,

136 S. Ct. 1540, 1547 (2016). To prove injury, Pierre-Noel must show that K.N. suffered an

“invasion of a legally protected interest that is concrete and particularized and actual or

imminent, not conjectural or hypothetical.” Id. at 1548.

Because K.N. has not been attending school in person, he has suffered no injury from the

school’s failure to retain a nurse. More, his mother cannot prove that the school violated the

provisions of his IEP because, as explained, his IEP stated that the dedicated nurse would not be

provided in school while he learns from home. See IEP at 21. And as to redressability, the

hearing officer has already ordered the school to provide him a nurse when he returns. See HOD

at 22; see also Hr’g Tr. at 61 (the school confirmed that an order from this Court would have no

impact because Bridges knows they must have a nurse in place for K.N.’s return). Thus, because

Pierre-Noel has not proven any cognizable injury to K.N. that is redressable, the Court lacks

subject matter jurisdiction over this claim. Cf. Emery v. Roanoke City Sch. Bd., 432 F.3d 294,

299–300 (4th Cir. 2005) (finding that a student lacked standing to sue in IDEA case when he

suffered no financial loss for the school district’s failure to reimburse his schooling expenses). 15

15

If K.N. is arguing that the school will fail to have a nurse in person when he is ready to return,

see Pl. MSJ at 39, this claim is not ripe because it “depends on future events that may never

come to pass,” Devia v. Nuclear Regul. Comm’n, 492 F.3d 421, 425 (D.C. Cir. 2007).

33

IV.

For these reasons, the Court will grant the District’s motion because it finds that the

IDEA does not require it to carry K.N. to the bus. The Court will also grant Pierre-Noel’s

motion as to the inappropriate IEP claim, but will deny it in all other respects. 16 Finally, the

Court will grant the school’s motion as to the in-school nurse, but will deny it in all other

respects. A separate order will issue today.

2023.04.06

14:57:02 -04'00'

Dated: April 6, 2023 TREVOR N. McFADDEN, U.S.D.J.

16

Pierre-Noel also seeks attorneys’ fees under the IDEA, which provides that the Court “may

award reasonable attorneys’ fees . . . to a prevailing party who is the parent of a child with a

disability.” 20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(3)(B)(i)(I). While Pierre-Noel did not receive all the relief she

requested, she did prevail on her inappropriate IEP claim against the school. So she may be

entitled to recover reasonable fees. The parties must meet and confer, and if they cannot agree

on fees, Pierre-Noel may file a motion for fees within 45 days from the date of this opinion.

34

Attachment A

Source or Classification/Descripti

Year Excerpt of Concordance Line

Source Type on

time. But this was about 10 million fewer than Bossman Moses had projected. There had been

plenty of grumbles. The price tags were higher, for exhibitors and fairgoers alike, than anyone

seemed to have counted on, the queues for the most popular shows were almost unbearably long,

the transportation system seemed to have been devised by a committee of leprechauns, the so-

called Amusement Area was notably unamusing, and everything snapped shut at 10 p.m. - hardly

Time Magazine an inducement to New Yorkers who had to work during the day. # A Porpoise on the House. So

1965 (Magazine) this season was ushered in Transportation system

goes beyond the problem of preserving economic health in the face of diminishing energy and

other resources; it also relates to long-range tax and budget policies to avoid inflation. There is a

need for integrated programs to ensure that critical national goals are met in such areas as housing

and urban development, transportation, health, education, protection of the environment and to

provide full employment for the nation's continuously expanding labor force. The day-by-day

News/New York operation of private markets can not deal with all those objectives; all of them involve the

1975 Times (News) participation of government through taxation, public expenditures, regulation, subsidies, Ambiguous

was " just unbelievable, " " People just do n't understand how it can take a letter two or three days

to get across town,' he said. " They have to realize that it's in transport,, on the streets, a good part

of the time, because transportation is so slow in New York. '' He also observed that mail

processing in New York was not " very up to date. " What has worried some mail users the most is

News/New York the issue of increasing rates. Magazine publishers, to take only one example, will have to absorb Vehicular Travel (that

1971 Times (News) an transports mail)

no wider than a mile. The city would stop immediately at its mile width, at which point the country

would commence. This would allow any citizen with the ability to use his or her legs to walk from

the midst of the city into the midst of the country. Unexcelled transportation systems would be

put into use for the traversing of the city's length. An underground system traveling at the speed of Vehicular Travel (high

two hundred miles an hour. An overhead system traveling at the rate of four hundred miles per speed); Transportation

1966 Fiction hour. Two very wide belts, much like conveyor belts, would stretch system

the effectiveness of that industry in providing goods or services. It is a fair assessment of the

organization of the transit industry to say that it is geared to produce a service but most certainly

not to sell it . If we review the various organizational charts presented in the book Principles of

Urban Transportation' to see the organizational forms typifying different segments of the

industry, the lack of a marketing function is most disturbing. Seven organizational charts arc

Academic/Non- shown in Principles, song more or less idealized // and others taken from those used by actual Industry of

1974 Fiction operating companies at the time the book was written. Transportation

ised at the time they helped settle the New Year's strike' threat of 1964, and he said he hoped this

committee would get going within " weeks. " The proposed committee would be required to study

all public, passenger transportation in the, city and its relationship to oth er transportation and

to neigh-1 boring areas, aiming at a long-, term solution. One study, fon in-' stance, might be how

News/New York suburbs of the Boston metropolitan dis-, triet help pay for transit lines;) the authority here has Transportation system

1965 Times (News) already studied such problems as zone fares. Fare Stable Since (fares to travel on)

items as health, education, legal assistance? and even babysitting services? is part of a bundle of ac

tivities necessary to help break people out of the ghetto cycle. Another factor often neglected has

been the cost of poor public transportation to poor people. The erosion of traffic from mass

transportation modes, often as a result of the highway policy of the federal and other levels of

government, has usually resulted in a substantial decline in the quality of service and a rise in the

Academic/Non- fares charged by public transit companies. The service decline as much as the fare boost is a Transportation system

1974 Fiction substantial (fares to travel on)

looking for work. In New York City, the jobs and the workers could be brought together by a 20-

cent subway or bus ride, or a worker could probably find housing near his job. On Long Island ,

however, restrictive zoning by the towns and the lack of convenient low-cost mass transportation

have left many plants isolated from areas in Nassau County that have a surplus of labor. New York

City officials often point to these problems as some of the unanticipated hazards of moving a

News/New York business from the city to the suburbs. The most common reason given for moving is the need for Vehicular Travel

1967 Times (News) space (subway, bus)

if in fact it were nothing but a show put on by a showman. Though it is nonsense to speak of Mr.

Quill as " simply carrying out the will of his membership " he is not and should not be treated as

the whole show. There are serious problems involved in low-cost transportation in this city. Once

this strike Is settled, the really serious problems should have priority attention. They should not, as Industry of

Letter/New in the past, be filed away until the next crisis, DANIEL ALLEN New York, Jan. 7, 1966 The Transportation (strike

1966 York Times writer was formerly associated with the American. Federation against)

1

has a high private standard of living. Nevertheless, our public living standard is low? witness the

standards of health, education, housing, mental care, transportation, to name a few, when it is

public health, public education, public housing, public mental care, or public transportation. The

issue? and the contrast is sharpened when one relates the standards of public services to our vast

Academic/Non- national wealth and finds disturbing extremes. It is further sharpened today because the majority of Transportation system

1974 Fiction the nation's population sides in urban places. In such close quarters and such (as public service)

sleet of cosmic radiation harmed no buildings, no tools or machines, no books, little, indeed,

except what was alive. Gazing into a viewscreen, where clouds parted briefly to show high towers

by a lake, Trevelyan said: '' Populous, which means they had efficient agriculture and

transportation, at least in their most advanced regions. I can identify railway lines and the traces

of roads. Early industrial, I'd guess, combustion engines, possible limited use of electricity.... But Transportation system

1975 Fiction they had more aesthetic sense, or something, than most cultures at that technological level (railway lines, roads)

mass transit has it all over private transportation when it comes to effective utilization of space.

The successful functioning of the nation's very large cities, such as New York, Chicago, Boston, or

Philadelphia , where considerable demands are placed on travel arteries, cries out for means of

transportation possessing substantial capacity; mass transportation fits these needs. Moreover,

these are the cities which could not survive without rail rapid transit and commuter railway Transportation system

Academic/Non- service. Table 2? 2 shows data for some selected cities and indicates the number of persons (rail transit, commuter

1974 Fiction entering downtown areas during an average day, and the railway service)

alone is no reason why it should be considered less relevant for today's problems, the conflict over

the Trade Center raises the question of relevance. I with fourteen others was a prochict of the

authority's recruiting program in 1960. Involvement With Rails In the mind of many trainees, the

transportation problem in New York, of which the railroads were and are such an important part,

should have presented the authority with its greatest opportunity and challenge. But we discovered

Letter/New that the organization entertained an almost neurotic fear of becoming entangled with railroad Transportation system

1967 York Times problems. We asked questions, but we were ignored (railroads)

demonstrably beyond the private capital resources of the railroad companies. " The solution, the

business group went on, " will require a single public agency or cooperating state agencies that

will plan and carry out complete modernization and rationalization of the lines. '' '' With Federal

aid tinder the 1964 Mass Transportation Act, '' the committee said, '' this program would provide

the region with a more satisfactory standard of service at manageable cost, and both private and

News/New York public costs would be far lower than any alternative. " At City Hall Mayor Wagner staked out a Transportation system

1965 Times (News) claim for tying the city's subway (railroads)

probably less than time losses that could be attributed to' hangover'. " The Government has

invoked the Taft-Hartley injunction seven times in the last five years, and has gone beyond its

normal mediation efforts in 20 cases, according to the Labor Department. Fourteen of these cases

have involved the transportation industry, the department says., Most labor experts agree that!

the multitude of craft unions inl that industry, heightened by; swift technological change,' poses a

News/New York severe test for free col-1 lective bargaining. They foresee continued Government intervention in

1965 Times (News) the field. One reason the labor movement has not Industry of transportation

Japan use public funds to help finance elections. Now Congress is escalating the battle over

whether the United States should do likewise. Campaign costs are so huge that some wealthy

people are charged with the ability to " buy '' elections. Radio, television, periodical, and similar

advertising, plus transportation, cost so much in a national presidential election campaign that

President Johnson now proposes the government subsidize these main costs. " Most congressmen

News/Christian seem to like the subsidy concept, " reports today's dispatch from Washington? if it can be worked

1967 Science Monitor out. But there are hurdles, several of which Vehicular Travel

unified concept of mass transit for the metropolitan area. It is bad enough that a portion of the

present toll revenue should be siphoned off to subsidize mass transit: it will be crassly inequitable

if the ability to commandeer motorists' funds should increase these tolls. Moreover, a coordinated,

viable transportation system depends on the best utilization of all major elements in accordance

with their special abilities to move people and goods. To improve one mode of transport by

News/New York discouraging the other through punitive financial levies. can only result in a deteriorated system. Vehicular Travel (car,

1970 Times (News) No one questions the indispensable role played by the subways subway)

basing much of its thinking on the past trends toward increasing use of the streetcar, could not

envision how the city would ever get along without the electric trolley. " Looking at the trends, it

simply could not be imagined that in the future the automobile would become the dominant means

of transportation in most cities. Perhaps the single family home and increasingly dispersed living

are the inevitable and inescapable trend of the foreseeable future. However, the rapid rise in the Vehicular Travel

Academic/Non- number of apartments being constructed in both urban and suburban areas indicates that many (automobile, streetcar,

1974 Fiction Americans are willing to put up with considerably more density trolley)

2

report. So you are really German? You know, the moment you came in, I said to myself, that

American officer is a German agent. I could sense it. One hour? Gut. Yes, The Templehoff Hotel,

tonight at 9:00. Danke. I'll arrange transportation from here from Colonel Klinkle. Klink! K-L-I...

No, it was really quite simple. I, uh, cut the fuel lines, the plane lost power, and then I directed

1971 Movie them to a field that I'd previously selected. (laughs) The-The fools even consider me a Vehicular Travel

to stay here.' " They're motivated. " General Greene is willing to talk about the Marines " way out "

future too. Several months ago a panel of Marine Corps officers turned in a year-long study of

what the corps should plan for the coming 20 years. High-speed air transportation concerned

them. The possible use of rockets to carry marine battalions to Africa or Asia in 45 minutes or less

News/Christian is being seriously planned for the late 1970's. General Greene reminds you that the Marine Corps Vehicular Travel (rocket,

1966 Science Monitor developed amphibious landing in the 1930's and the use of helicopters for troops after World helicopter)

where Rome is looking for leadership. " 729068 txt Letters to the Editor Letters to the Editor The

Poor Need Railroads To the Editor: It seems the height of hypocrisy for U. S. Transportation

Secretary John A. Volpe to herald the rescue of passenger train service through the newly formed

Rail Passenger Corporation, while he allows such major commuter rail facilities as the Jersey

Letter/New Central to go down the drain of bankruptcy and dissolution. Editorial Dec. 6. Meanwhile national

1970 York Times studies and statistics highlight the acute crisis Agency/Entity (railroads)

its management, " which is considered excellent. " Indeed, Rothschild asserted, Copperweld

would prosper under Imetal. # Imetal is a holding company formed last November to manage

about 70 subsidiaries engaged in mining (nickel , lead, iron ore, zinc), metal processing, real

estate, transportation and other ventures which the Rothschilds own or hold an interest in. Last

year the group collectively posted after-tax income of $32.5 million on sales of $1.1 billion. The

Time Magazine new firm's interests reach from Europe to the South Pacific, Africa and South America.

1975 (Magazine) Copperweld would give it a sturdy beachhead Industry of transportation

morning, Mr. Phelps. Albert Zenbra, the supreme boss of the syndicate's Mediterranean branch,

which processes one-fourth of the world's illegal supply of heroin, is dying of cancer. Zenbra will

soon designate a successor to whom he will transfer a secret list of the opium farms,

transportation routes, carriers, and corrupt officials through which he operates. Your mission,

Jim, should you decide to accept it, is to obtain that secret list and prevent Zenbra from Transportation system

1970 Movie perpetuating his empire. As always, should you or any of your I'm Force be caught or killed, the (route)

was to get you a birthday present. It's not my birthday. Birthdays aren't on the calendar. It's in the

heart. Colonel... it seems to me if the men are looking forward to it... I'd love to, Dr. Svenson, but

there's no transportation. We'll go in your car. It's too crowded. I wouldn't care. Then it's settled.

I'll get packed. Good! Hold it! Halt! Take it easy, Schultz. I'm just getting a drink of water. Don't

1967 Movie be so jumpy Vehicular Travel (car)

the largest peacetime armada ever to be assembled in world history? have been carrying nine

million tons of American grain to India this year. The United States has moved -- and India

received, unloaded, and stored -- more than a million tons of food imports a month without

dislocating the Indian transportation and distribution system. In the words of Washington's

Secretary of Agriculture Orville L. Freeman, recently here on an inspection tour, the armada is part

News/Christian of history's greatest war? the war against hunger? in which he finds India today is playing an

1966 Science Monitor aggressive role. This war is far Transportation system

mobility are an economic and social cost burden upon the urban public. Action that can lessen

these costs will not only benefit urban dwellers, but all citizens who utilize goods and services

produced in urban areas? goods and services whose ultimate costs must reflect the various costs of

urban life, including transportation. Much of what follows is a discussion of the transit industry. Industry of transportation

This is usually construed to mean those mass transportation firms and agencies that operate bus, (firms operating buses,

Academic/Non- rapid transit, street railway, and trolley bus services. The transit industry, as such, does not include rapid transit, railways,

1974 Fiction taxicab companies nor operators of and trolley bus services)

that the four men, all closely associated with Fifth Avenue Coach, had misappropriated more than

$4.8-million from the company. Fifth Avenue Coach operated New York City's bus system until

the city acquired the bus lines in March, 1962, following condemnation proceedings. The company

currently operates the Westchester Street Transportation Company, which runs bus lines in Industry of

Westchester County, and the V.T.P. Metered Transportation Corporation, a limousine service. Mr. Transportation (firm

News/New York Cohn, a partner in the Manhattan law firm of Saxe, Bacon Bolan, came into national attention in operating bus lines and

1968 Times (News) the early nineteen-fifties as the chief counsel for the late Senator Joseph R. limousine services)

3

to whether anyone had really won any thing worthwhile. Prime Minister Kakuei Tanaka warned

that the big pay raises could set off a vicious wage-price spiral that would boomerang against

consumers and threaten Japan's competitiveness in world markets . The workers themselves, who

had gone so far as to stage a two-day transportation strike to press their demands, concede

gloomily that most of their gains have already been wiped out by Japan's virulent inflation. Living Industry of

Time Magazine costs so far this year are running 21% ahead of 1973. # Says a young accountant for a large cement Transportation (strike

1974 (Magazine) company: " The big pay raise does against)

Jenny! The window's wide open. (HOOTING) (GROWLING) (GROWLING) (GROWLING)

(GROWLING) (ANIMALGRUNTING) When I screamed, she bolted the cage. - I'm sorry, Marsh.

- You're leaving tomorrow, just as soon as I can arrange transportation. - But Marsh -- - But

Marsh nothing! - You promised, no more stunts! - It was n't a stunt! Then what would you call it?

Oh, Marsh, please listen. Before my father wrote Death of a Matador, he went into the ring at

1968 Movie Barcelona Vehicular Travel

between the sum which will be made available by the action of the Controller and the actual

budget shortage, without affecting direct services for children. " There will be no cuts in the

following areas: " 1 . Employment of day-today substitutes for absent teachers. '' 2. Issuance of

pupil transportation passes. '' 3. Personnel in community school districts and their elementary and

junior high schools. " 4. Personnel in high schools. " 5. After-school activities. " 6. Evening

News/New York Academic/Non-Fiction high schools and evening trade schools. " 7. Adult education programs. " 8. Transportation system

1971 Times (News) School (pupil passes)

of housing units but providing a suitable infrastructure for an integrated, comprehensively

designed human city. This includes environmental services -- that is, shelter, water, drainage,

sewerage, refuse collection, and utilities; and social services -- that is, education, welfare, health,

employment, and transportation. What I'm saying is that it's easy enough to recognize the

News/New York problems qualitatively, but it takes a good deal of work to analyze them quantitatively. " " We Transportation system

1970 Times (News) have to remember to set our sights on things we have some hope of achieving, " Kutty says. " Until (public service)

for his old boss. # Nearly two years later, Butterfield is still being hunted down by hard core

Nixonians. Now head of the Federal Aviation Administration, which is under attack for neglecting

safety standards, he has been hampered by the undercutting and sandbagging of Nixon allies in the

Department of Transportation, the parent body of FAA. What is more, Butterfield has been

getting midnight phone calls from old associates who have berated him for coming clean about the

Time Magazine White House tapes. One call came from Rose Mary Woods, the former President's longtime

1975 (Magazine) secretary, who angrily assailed Butterfield as a Agency/Entity (planes)

as perhaps the largest part of that February hike in meat prices. Beef margins slim In the beef

industry, as mentioned, only about one-third of each dollar of steak you eat goes to the middleman.

And at each step of the beef process, costs (including labor, feeding, transportation, slaughtering,

machinery, rent, and taxes) are rising, while profit margins are extremely slim. For the farmer who Industry of

News/Christian raises the cattle in the first place there just is n't much profit at all. Overall farm expenses by Transportation (beef

1972 Science Monitor February 14, 1972, according to the U.S. Agriculture Department transporting)

fiscal year that has not yet been formally appropriated. There was no indication tonight just how

much delay or how much additional cost the $210 - million appropriation would create later on.

The new figure was known, however, to have been supported by both the Boeing Company and

the Department of Transportation as enough to forestall breaking up the team of scientists,

engineers and subcontractors that has been working on development of the 1800-mile-an-hour

airliner. The $210-million, It was reported, would mean some postponement of hardware

News/New York procurement but would keep design and research work going essentially as before. The Senate and

1970 Times (News) House Agency/Entity (airplane)

headed away from the compound. He must've decided to follow the herds. Sure, that's it. Lake Setu

is only a few miles from here. That's never dry. Let's hurry up and fix this thing in case we miss

him. He'll have water and transportation home. I'll use some tapes from the kit to bind the hose.

That's a good idea. I wonder why Jack did n't do that. I do n't see any first aid kit here, do you? No.

1966 Movie [ROARS] I'll let Clarence out and give him some Ambiguous

the surface and gave it a top rating for skid resistance. # Liquid Latex Pavement. At Texas A. M.,

Research Engineer Douglas Bynum, 35, is testing his theory that the rubber in discarded tires

might give asphalt added flexibility and more resistance to cracking. Working in the university's

Transportation Institute, Bynum prepared samples of asphalt combined with ground-up rubber

obtained from old tires . Test results showed that the powdered rubber-used as a binding material-

Time Magazine increases asphalt's overall cohesiveness so that it does not split when roadbeds shift slightly or

1970 (Magazine) sink. Bynum's findings seem to be a natural outgrowth of experiments Agency/Entity (car tires)

4

Integrate whom with whom? The refugees are Palestinian Arabs. The local populations are

Palestinian Arabs. Perhaps Mr. Forster means the integration of the Gaza refugees with their

fellow refugees in Amman. This " integration " the Israelis encouraged from the first days after the

June war by providing free one-way transportation to the Jordan River. On the West Bank, in at

least the cases of the three villages of Immaus, Yalu and Beit Nuba, the Israeli Government

News/New York encouraged " integration " by evicting the approximately 8,000 residents and leveling the houses.

1970 Times (News) The frontiers Mr. Forster claims are open are so for Vehicular Travel

mass transit: it will be crassly inequitable if the ability to commandeer motorists' funds should

increase these tolls. Moreover, a coordinated, viable transportation system depends on the best

utilization of all major elements in accordance with their special abilities to move people and

goods. To improve one mode of transportation by discouraging the other through punitive

financial levies. can only result in a deteriorated system. No one questions the indispensable role Transportation system;

News/New York played by the subways in New York, but they, literally can not begin to substitute for the motor Vehicular Travel (car,

1970 Times (News) vehicle where lack of population density and land use pattern require the subway)

system? Providing such service, regardless of whether it is through the entire system or by means

of special services, is likely to be highly expensive. This is evident in relation to the new rapid

transit system being constructed in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area by the Washington

Metropolitan Area Transportation Authority (WMATA). Under the Highway Act, WMATA Transportation system

must provide access to all Washington Metro rapid transit stations for the handicapped and the (rapid transit system);

Academic/Non- aged. This means, for the most part, that elevators must be included in all rapid transit stations. Agency/Entity

1974 Fiction Under the provisions of the Highway Act, (WMATA)

The principal unspoken reason for opposition was concern that organized transit labor would make

off with most of the subsidy by means of high wage demands. The second goal, the campaign for

which was launched in early 1972, was to split off some of the Highway Trust Fund money for

mass transportation purposes. The Nixon administration gave very strong support to this aim.

Academic/Non- Both Secretary Volpe and, later, SecreThe // tary Brinegar spoke out on this issue at every Transportation system

1974 Fiction opportunity, as did the president.' 1' In the Congress the issue of the Trust Fund was a difficult one, (rapid transit system)

PLACE: International Amphitheater, 42d and Halsted streets. ADMISSION: Adults, 31; children

12 and under, 50 cents. EXHIBITS: More than 450 individual cars and trucks, import models, and

experimental vehicles . Fifty displays devoted to accessories and allied equipment, plus special

institutional displays. TRANSPORTATION: The Amphitheater is minutes from Chicago's Loop

and easily accessible by car, bus, or taxi. Ample parking on west side of exhibition hall.

TELEVISION: An exclusive telecast of the auto show will be presented on WGN-TV Channel 9 Vehicular Travel (car,

1967 News Chicago tomorrow from 5:30 to 7 p. m. BY JOHN bus, taxi)

the period after the Second World War. Indeed, some observers noted that mass transit aid was the

fastest growing of all federal programs. The Highway Act of 1973 is certainly not a trumpet blast

announcing the arrival of the transit millenium, but it is an indication of strong support for mass

transportation improvement in the United States. Despite its deceptive title, it is not just a

highway act in the sense of providing passenger transportation by means of the private automobile;

Academic/Non- it might better be dubbed a transportation act because of its broad nobility implications in both Transportation system;

1974 Fiction rural and urban areas. The act Vehicular Travel (cars)

his mind, and the, vote was reversed today. Mr. Stafford said in an interview that he had initially

planned to vote against the pro Senator iZCZA;.: Zt: Wr, Vd posal but had decided to vote for it

after talking with John A. Volpe, the Secretary of Transportation. '' Overnight, on reflection, I

realized that my original view was right , " Mr. Stafford said, adding, " I come from a rural state,

News/New York you know. " Mr. Volpe proposed last March opening up the trust fund and freeing some of the Agency/Entity (mass

1972 Times (News) money for mass transit. transit)

have a strong suspicion that the railroad lobby is against such a common-sense safety measure for

fear of damaging the " image' of the safest form of travel. It's time that such nonsensical thinking is

put aside by government regulation. There is no valid reason to permit any form of public Vehicular Travel

News/New York transportation to continue operation without the use of safety belts. ARTHUR M. HORST (mandatory safety belts

1975 Times (News) Reading, Pa., Jan. 6, 1975 731716 txt Letters to the Editor pg. 188 Letters to' the Editor on trains)

poverty or the ghettos; but mobility, along with such items as health, education, legal assistance?

and even babysitting services? is part of a bundle of ac tivities necessary to help break people out

of the ghetto cycle. Another factor often neglected has been the cost of poor public transportation

to poor people. The erosion of traffic from mass transportation modes, often as a result of the

Academic/Non- highway policy of the federal and other levels of government, has usually resulted in a substantial Transportation system

1974 Fiction decline in the quality of service and a rise in the fares charged by public transit companies. The (rise in fares)

5

Company, announced a stunning innovation. In an industry with adamantine resistance to change

and an aversion to punctuality, PIE proposed to guarantee on-time delivery in exchange for a 10

percent premium; if PIE was late, all freight charges would be refunded. Over the vigorous protest

of the Department of Transportation, the ICC ruled that this plan amounted to an offer of '' free ''

Harpers transportation and was illegal. Other agencies share the ICC's hostility to change. The FCC has Agency/Entity; Industry

Magazine stunted, perhaps irrevocably, the development of cable TV. The CAB labored long and mightily to of Transportation (freight

1975 (Magazine) arrest the growth shipments)

Bill of Rights " to educate veterans were also enacted. At last, the nation is making the financial

investment in education that has so long been needed. Congress's excellent record is marred only

by its curious squabbling over funds for the modest Teacher Corps. Congress created a Cabinet-

level Department of Transportation, started a program of improved railroad passenger service in

the Boston-to-Washington corridor and expanded aid for mass transit. The. Maritime Agency/Entity;

News/New York Administration was unwisely left out of the new department, no action was taken on the President's Transportation system

1966 Times (News) request for airway user charges, and much more needs to be done to (railroad service)

One of the world's fastest passenger trains may be zipping thru the Illinois countryside within the

next two months, THE TRIBUNE learned yesterday . Officials from the Illinois Central railroad

said they are negotiating with the department of transportation to lease one of the super trains

which would be used on experimental runs between Chicago and Carbondale, a distance of 307

miles by rail. Paul H. Reistrup, vice president of passenger service for the I. C., said the railroad

1968 News Chicago has been involved in discussions with the department of transportation for Agency/Entity (re: trains)

to history, provided a grace and satisfaction to kitchen utensils that is almost entirely lost in this

day of total massmanufacturing. | IRON AMENITIES, PLAIN AND FANCY From the beginning

of the Iron Age, man has depended on the blacksmith for his necessities of civilized life, his tools

and utensils and transportation. When life became a little easier because of iron, man turned to

his local smith for what may be termed the material amenities of living. These include the comfort

Academic/Non- and convenience of lighting appliances and the durable security of iron window grills, sturdy Industry of transportation

1969 Fiction gates, and unassailable fences. Working within (raw materials)

John Volpe, the Nixon administration has endorsed no-fault insurance in principle. But it has

urged Congress to leave it up to the states to choose whatever no-fault legislation they want -- if

any. Advocates of the coverage promptly accused the White House of burying the stronger support

of no-fault insurance that the Transportation Department once urged. These advocates contended

the administration is knuckling under to insurance industry demands that all insurance regulation

News/Wall remain fragmented among the 50 states. A month ago, Mr. Volpe expressed willingness to

Street Journal compromise and said he " would not object " to federal standards for state-level nofault programs

1971 (News) provided they could Agency/Entity

can remove a part of the river's impact on the culture of the people living along its banks. The

introduction of air conditioning into tropical and subtropical regions allows for ways of life that

are not so heavily influenced by the local physical environment. The technological development

that makes possible rapid transportation exposes people to a variety of geographic environments.

For some favored persons, at least, the geographic setting may be altered to suit the mood: the

Academic/Non- Swiss Alps in the summer, the Riviera in the winter. The geographic environ ment of Miami,

1971 Fiction Florida, or Boulder, Colorado, Transportation System

red, yellow, rust -- or with large photo murals, in color or black and white, depicting scenes from

Mexico's past and present. So far, no litter, no ads, and no graffiti . A visit to the Metro is almost

mandatory for members of this city's Transportation Authority. They should see it and weep. And

imagine how astonished they'd he at the Metro's instant success as a place for Sunday family

outings -- an occurrence that even the Metro management was n't prepared for. It had gone in for Agency/Entity;

1970 New Yorker plenty of promotion, including free excursion rides Vehicular Travel (metro)

Republican Governor of Massachusetts, he was expected to pave over America when he became

Richard Nixon's Secretary of Transportation. Instead, Volpe has stopped highway projects that

would have thrust through park land and destroyed low-income housing and historic buildings.

Says he: '' We've got to provide a national transportation system with the least possible harm to

the environment. '' # This week, when Volpe presents the Highway Act of 1970 to the House

Public Works Committee, he plans to go even farther. He proposes to open the hitherto Agency/Entity;

Time Magazine untouchable-indeed, almost sacrosanct-Federal Highway Trust Fund to purposes other than Transportation system

1970 (Magazine) building (highways)

century clipper captain was charged a fee by the Navy for putting down Barbary pirates, " he said.

The man in direct charge of the nation's aviation-securitiy program, Benjamin 0. Davis Jr., offered

a cautious response to Mr. Browne's initiative. Mr. Davis, an Assistant Secretary of

Transportation. said he agreed with Mr. Browne's '' basic premise that the airline system is a Agency/Entity (Assistant

News/New York national resource which we must preserve. " Noting that he had discussed the proposal with Mr. Secretary of

1972 Times (News) Browne, Mr. Davis said the ideas were " worth examining, " but added; " I do n't think Transportation)

6

were told we would not have to bother with customs. Only diplomatic personnel are excepted. I've

never heard a thing so ridiculous... Wait. These gentlemen are to be passed immediately by order

of Minister of Information Massik. - Thank you. - Will you follow me, please? Your

transportation is outside. Come with us. The Marvellous Mr. Mechanico? Entertainers, Your

Excellency. Their names are Lambert and Lesser. According to their special-entry permits, they're

in the country on a theatrical tour. Special-entry permit? Who signed it? The minister of

1969 Movie information himself, sir Vehicular Travel

of the last week, especially of the last 72 hours, have not allowed the President to focus on the

question of the conditional amnesty program, " John Hushen, deputy White House press secretary,

told reporters aboard Air Force One en route to Washington from a Ford speech before a?

transportation conference in Pittsburgh. '' He has not finished his considerations of just what he

plans to do. It is more complex than he thought initially and he wants to be personally involved in

the entire matter. "' THE ANNOUNCEMENT had been scheduled for Tuesday. A White House Industry of

1974 News Chicago source said he Transportation

that is why you and you and you are riding with me! Am I right? Well? Whaddaya say? I say this:

I say, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, friends and enemies , - meet the future! - The future

what? The future mode of transportation for this western world. Now, I'm not gon na make a lot of

extravagant claims for this little machine. Sure, it'll change your whole life for the better, but that's

1969 Movie all! What do you think you're doin'? You got the crowd together. Vehicular Travel

whose tracks often parallel the Illinois Central's. # As the hiring of Boyd suggests, Johnson has not

hesitated to depart from the railroad's tradition of promoting from within. Boyd, the former

chairman of the Civil Aeronautics Board, was an able and dedicated administrator of the $6 billion-

a-year Transportation Department. But he was not too adept in dealing with Congress, and that

stymied his efforts to bring the Maritime Administration under the department's jurisdiction and to

Time Magazine relieve overburdened airports. In Boyd, the Illinois Central may also be getting some trouble;

1969 (Magazine) conflict-of-interest questions have been raised about the Department Agency/Entity

it has a swimming pool. You wan na get wet with me? How can I can no to my boss? Passengers

on Flight 17 from New York City will arrive at Gate 35. Passengers arriving on TWA Flight

Number 11 may now claim their baggage in the street entrance. Round transportation from

downtown Los Angeles, Statler and Hilton Hotels is now boarding at TWA baggage-claim area.

I'm sorry. I'm always the last one out. They'll wait for us. Excuse me. Have you seen her? Have Vehicular Travel

1972 Movie you seen my new star? No, no, not (airplane)

Only by cutting down on the number of seats could more comfortable seating be provided for the

passengers. It is possible that large articulated or doubledeck buses could maintain hitch seating

capacity yet offer greater comfort and room .'' // Admittedly, even at best a vehicle designed for the

mass transportation of many people must inevitably have a long way to go to match the aesthetic

Academic/Non- desires of any one of them. If, on top of this, equipment is marred by its age, it is small wonder that

1974 Fiction mass transport is viewed by much of the public as an inferior good. Vehicular Travel (bus)

almost complete. Declining patronage and revenues in the face of rising costs meant that the

market for new buses was very small indeed after the spate of new equipment purchases for

renewal and replacement in the immediate postwar period . The transit holding companies began

to withdraw from the ownership and operation of mass transportation services and turn their

attention to greener pastures. One innovation that has grown increasingly popular in the transit

industry is the transit management company. Usually based on one of the former holding

Academic/Non- companies, the management company will operate a transit property for a city at a fee. Often an Industry of

1974 Fiction incentive clause Transportation

Colonel Min? " Colonel Min's gaze did not waver. Without a word, he nodded slightly. He sat up.

" Chaplain, I want you to see Lieutenant Cho before you leave. Would you go over your plans

once more with him? He will take care of your transportation. '' Chaplain Koh said, '' Yes. '' ''

Good luck in Seoul , Chaplain, " said Colonel Min. " We shall see each other again very soon. " He

1968 Fiction stood up. I did not stir. He came toward me. I did not look up. He Vehicular Travel

of the four unions involved in the dispute reached agreement on a new contract. Details of the

settlement were withheld pending ratification by locals' of -- the 180,000-member union, the

Brotherhood of Railway and - Airline Clerks . Two. smaller unions reached agreement Feb. 4. This

leaves only the United Transportation Union still without a settlement. UTU represents 90,000

workers. All-Night Session Today's settlement came about 5 a. Chicago time after an all-night

session with mediators from the Department of Labor. Labor Secretary James D. Hodgson made Industry of

1971 News Chicago this statement after the - settlement:, " The demonstrated ability to reach Transportation (strike)

7

his face seemed to have lost some tightness, there was little' color in his face and not much sparkle

in his eyes. The other three members of the five-some were Murray W. " Dusty " Miller, executive'

secretary of the Teamsters Union: John W. Murphy, president of Gateway Transportation Co.,

who is a trustee of the Teamsters' pension funds; and Joseph ' rrertole, an international vice

president of the union. MOST OF the other players in the' three-day tournament, Nixon plannedto

play only Thursday are Teamster officials or persons who have close associations with its rich Industry of

1975 News Chicago pension Transportation (strike)

The idea was once advanced by James R. Hoffa of the Teamsters. Now it's being suggested again

in modified form by the Brotherhood of Railway Clerks (AFL-CIO). Its president, C. L. Dennis,

proposes a permanent conference of transportation unions? instead of one big union for all

transportation workers. He says other leaders '' share my enthusiasm for this. '' The initial plan is Industry of

for regularly scheduled meetings to consider mutual problems in the sprawling, rolling Transportation (strike);

News/Christian transportation industry. Trends... New increases in living costs have added to labor pressures for Vehicular Travel

1967 Science Monitor higher wages. The government's Consumer Price (railway)

other transport operators to carry freight and passengers on a temporary basis. " The commission is

hopeful that a work stoppage will not develop, " ICC Chair man George M. Stafford said. " If,

however, it does occur then it must remain the role of the other modes of surface transportation

to fill the void as best they can. '' New, Additional Services The ICC issued an order under which

carriers such as trucking firms could establish " new or additional services to supplement Vehicular Travel (surface

1970 News Chicago temporarily the transportation facilities of the country. " Under the order, carriers would be given a transportation)

Forces beyond the control of even the most enlightened marketingoriented management have

brought on this decline in patronage. in all likelihood, the declines were deeper and came more

precipitously // because of the lack of true marketing effort. With a thorough marketing effort, one

would expect that demand for mass transportation should be increased as a result of consumer

needs being met by service that is useful and attractive. That is, transit becomes an increasingly

Academic/Non- better alternative relative to other means of transport, or to staying home for those citizens having

1974 Fiction no alternative means of mobility. Some Industry Background The present-day attitude Transportation system

budgetmaking time in Virginia, the Governor is expected to stand anxious watch until almost all

have been passed. Florida's tourist cup is spilling over. Tourists poured into the state in a record

flow in the winter season just ended. And the tide shows no sign now of ebbing.. All

transportation agencies serving the state say reservations for the summer ahead stand at record

highs. Some agencies are maintaining winter schedules or even adding to them. Motel construction

News/Christian is booming. A Jacksonville firm recently announced plans to build 14 new motels and lease them

1966 Science Monitor to the StatlerHilton chain. The State Development Commission Agency/Entity

had uncovered no evidence that Mr. Kugler had ever seen any of the pertinent memos or knew a

thing about an alleged bribe until a month before the indictments were handed up. The commission

established, however, that a copy of the memo written on Oct. 30, 1970, by Mr. Biederman to

Transportation Commissioner John C. Kohl, saying that Mr. Sherwin's interference '' could be

News/New York considered as part of a conspiracy to violate bidding statutes, " was in a file in the office of Evan

1973 Times (News) W. Jahos, head of the Division of Criminal Justice and one of Mr. Kugler's top aides. Biederman Agency/Entity

in the Aleutians. And what did Lucy do? She went down to the corner and caught the crosstown

bus to school for her eight o'clock. Roy said he would drive her over if she wanted; now that she

was getting bigger he didn't like the idea of her taking public transportation, or walking around

on slippery streets. But she declined that first morning, and on those snowy mornings thereafter. It Vehicular Travel (car,

was all right, she said, there was nothing to worry about, she preferred not to inconvenience him bus); Transportation

1967 Fiction by taking him away from his studying if that's what studying system

beneficial effect on our standard of living. Americans now and in the future will have more " time

off " than any people have ever had since the advent of the Industrial Revolution. Labor-saving

devices, the shorter work week, the increased harnessing of productive energy, automation, better

and faster transportation, increased family purchasing power, more liberal working conditions,

longer vacations, and a higher standard of living among more people make the opportunity to

Academic/Non- recreate a reality for most of us. One has only to remember that for many leisure time is "

1975 Fiction consumption time. " It is during man Transportation system

all unlikely in 1974.116 The authorizations under the 1973 Highway Act from which the various

sums for mass transportation as well as highway related purposes will be withdrawn are shown in

Table 1? 2:1 7 Table The new UMTA contract authority for fiscal years 1974 to 1976 is $3 billion.

The Department of Transportation appropriations bill for fiscal year 1974 included almost a

billion dollars for mass transportation. The breakdown is as follows: Capital Facilities grains, 8 8

Urban Mass Transportation $872,000,000; Technical Studies, $37,600,000; Research,

Academic/Non- Development and Demonstrations, $68,950,000; Administrative Expense, $7,000,000; total, Transportation system;

1974 Fiction $985,550,000.11 Just how Agency/Entity

8

the weight of federal law behind certain offenses? such as possessing fire bombs or many common

components of home-made bombs, and making phony bombing threats. The differences arise in

approach. The Nixon administration's bills crack down hardest on violators. The maximum

penalties for false bomb threats and illegal interstate transportation of explosives -- now one year

in prison and/or a $1,000 fine -- would be increased by a factor of 5 for bomb threats and by a

News/Christian factor of 10 for interstate transportation. If an explosion injured anyone, penalties could be Industry of

1970 Science Monitor doubled. Most stringent of all, if a fatality resulted, Transportation

3 plan. He issued those instructions even tho public hearings already have been conducted on

Phase 3. Acknowledges the Need " I recognize the concept of an expressway to conveniently link

the North Side of Chicago and Cook County to the South Side has long been acknowledged as

necessary, both for expanded transportation thru mass transit Iines as well as for improved auto

and truck travel, '' Ogilvie said. " I also recognize that there is substantial federal funding available Transportation System;

to us for this project, and that it will assist us in creating new jobs and further strengthening our Vehicular Travel (car,

1972 News Chicago state's economic position in a truck)

am? This is a business deal. Not really, sergeant. Either you will tell us where the dynamite is or

we will kill you. I do n't care how many dynamite trucks have been stolen. You are to return to

headquarters at once! I will see that you have transportation back to your base. Yes, of course,

put him on. Yes , General Rashned. Oh, they're here. Gentlemen, one moment please. Yes, general.

1970 Movie This is Major Marak. I agree, general, it is a direct affront to the government. Very Vehicular Travel

nearby. Recent events raised some questions about this. Los Angeles went more than 40 miles

from its downtown center to select a 17,000-acre airport site in Palmdale, in dry, barren Antelope

Valley. The Sierra Club is now suing to invalidate F.A.A. approval of the site. New York's

Metropolitan Transportation Authority wants to' convert the, former Stewart Air Force Base,

more than 60 miles from Manhattan, Into a jetport. But community opposition has been stirred up,

rel suiting in the filing of a law, suit. Some conservationists in. Canada are opposing Montreal's

1971 News proposed' new Agency/Entity (airport)

in United States milk and cream are seldom associated with foodborne illnesses under the present

conditions of milk production. The market milk produced in this country is, generally, of excellent

quality. This is due to elimination of disease from dairy herds, sanitary milk production,

pasteurization, and care in transportation and delivery to the consumer. The situation is not as

favorable in many other countries. CONTAMINANTS At the time milk leaves the udder of the Industry of

Academic/Non- healthy cow it contains few bacteria; these stem from milk ducts and cistern. During the milking Transportation (milk

1967 Fiction process bacteria are usually added from various sources. In products)

were under way. At 120th Street, the police said, area residents went to the aid of riders emerging

from an emergency exit, offering them cold water, fruit and soft drinks. Many of the riders , after

reaching the street, expressed confusion over how to get home via surface transportation. Many

people crowded around policemen to ask directions, and at 96th Street a long line formed in front

of a Spanish-speaking patrolman. Pay telephones in bars, stores and shops along Lexington

News/New York Avenue also drew lines of people eager to notify relatives of the delay. Others were eager to Vehicular Travel (surface

1969 Times (News) express, transportation)

The " shifting " rationale is associated more with the quality of transit than anything else. In other

words, only transit service of quality approaching or surpassing the automobile would he effective

in at 90 // tracting patrons. The '' need '' argument is more closely related to provision of mass

transportation service for those without an alternative means of mobility. It is obvious that

bringing about any major improvements in miss transportation is a formidable task, given the

Academic/Non- history of industry decline stretching back the better part of a half century. (() ne per ceptive

1974 Fiction British writer summed up the United Transportation system

may be its own reward. Nevertheless, it is indeed quite legitimate to question whether or not it is a

waste of time to attempt to resuscitate mass transport. The critic of the pro-mass transport position

can ask some sticky questions. Might time and resources be better spent on providing improved

private transportation through highway betterments or, perhaps, increasing the supply of parking in

downtown areas ? Perhaps the resources being allocated toward improving mass transportation Transportation System;

Academic/Non- might be better spent on automotive safety programs, increasing expenditures for education, Vehicular Travel

1974 Fiction improving mental health, aiding mentally retarded children, or a host of other worthy projects (highways)

a petroleum emergency exists which threatens the broad security interests of the United States. " "

The Department of State, the Office of Emergency Planning and the Department of Defense

concur in this view, " he said . '' If the present shutdown continues for more than a few weeks a

critical transportation and supply problem will develop Which can not be solved by individual

efforts of oil companies. " Today's action is taken to prepare for that possibility. " He said that this

News/New York would enable the United States to participate in joint programs with other governments, including

1967 Times (News) governments in the Organization of Economic Transportation system

9

court injunction and let them carpetbag south to Atlanta's new $18 million stadium, after next

month's All-Star Game. # The circumstances that lured all three groups toward Atlanta were, in a

way, the same that impelled Sherman. Atlanta is the hub of the South; it has fine transportation

(good roads, superb air service), and is an important center of population. Within a 200-mile radius

Time Magazine live 10 million folks who yearn for major league sport. The closest baseball team of significance is Vehicular Travel (roads,

1965 (Magazine) the Cincinnati Reds, 450 miles away; the nearest pro football is in St. Louis airports)

money from the Highway Trust Fund earmarked for construction of Interstate Highway System

segments in large urban areas for an equal amount of general fund money for mass transit. In order

to accomplish this switch, the governor of a state and local government officials must make a joint

request to the secretary of transportation for approval of the deletion. The secretary can withdraw

his approval of a portion of the Interstate, if the segment is not to be replaced by a toll road in the Agency/Entity;

Academic/Non- same corridor or if the segment is not essential to the integrity of the over-all interstate system. Vehicular Travel

1974 Fiction Local officials may then (highway)

extent, there are more equal countervailing forces at work. As passage of the Highway Act of 1973

reveals, the situation has begun to change, though perhaps not as rapidly as one would like.

CHAPTER THREE Urban Mass Transportation: The Institutions The principal institutional actors

on the stage of mass transportation improvement are the mass transportation industry in the

United States and the Urban Mass Transportation Administration (UMTA) of the U.S. Department

of Transportation. A major role for the cities is the commitment to improvement of mass System of

Academic/Non- transportation and the provision? in conjunction with UMTA and the local transit operating Transportation;

1974 Fiction agency? Agency/Entity

their local battalions, where they will be taught African history and Swahili, and become judo

experts. Then they'll get their passports, and go to an independent African nation, and from there

into the resistance in places like Angola, South Rhodesia and South Africa. (He told me

transportation to Africa has been promised by a country he would not name.) The " army " also

New Republic will collect needed supplies for African resistance movements. It wants to register with Congress

1966 (Magazine) as a lobby to push for a repatriation bill to give incentives to Negroes wanting to live in Africa. As Vehicular Travel

authority, in northern India. But Maharishi, once clear of the big hills, where he once projected that

it would take him two hundred years to bring TM to the entire world, has shown a lot of early foot

by moving the message to the West, thus profiting by modern transportation and communication.

Maharishi is swathed in robes, has the long hair and flowing beard of the traditional Indian Guru,

and seems to be most at home when sitting cross-legged on a throne of rose leaves or its

1975 Magazine equivalent. But he is a crowd compeller, a veritable Billy Graham of the System of Transportation

like a religious system are far less obvious. Second, the nonmaterial aspects of culture are likely to

be more fundamental to the people who adhere to that culture. The basic values of a culture are the

core around which other cultural elements are arranged. People can accept a new mode of

transportation without disturbing this central core, 30 but a competing system of values is much

more threatening to the total integration. Even with purely material technologies, however, people

Academic/Non- tend to resist the adoption of new ways, and sociologists have been inter ested in some of the

1971 Fiction factors that influence the rate Vehicular Travel

455; TOOLONG " arguments? mass transportation does indeed have a place that can be justified

by cost analysis. The problem still remains whether or not people will use transit if it is provided.

Even more important than cost comparisons for the individual user of transport is whether or not

mass transportation is less costly than the private automobile to society as a whole in given

metropolitan areas. Objective measures are not available. Yet, in the larger urban areas at least,

Academic/Non- there is a growing feeling that the automobile can not continue to be the dominant Vehicular System of Transportation

1974 Fiction Travel. Public officials not (beyond cars)

Mr. Whitten voted against the conservationist position on several key issues in the last Congress.

He voted for funding the prototypes of the supersonic transport plane, for increasing logging in

national forests and against spending $1-billion extra to fight water pollution. Funding for the SST

will continue under the jurisdiction of the transportation subcommittee. A small group of liberals

on the Appropriations Committee contended that the '' logical " subcommittees to handle

environmental programs were the interior or public works panels. These liberals would not be

News/New York quoted by name because they said they had been warned by Mr. Mahon and other senior Agency/Entity;

1971 Times (News) committee members, such Vehicular Travel (plane)

coal supplies are expected to hold out for about four hundred years. This means, first, that the

efficiency with which fuel is used, especially in transportation (which accounts for about 24

percent of our fuel consumption) will have to be improved. Secondly, it means that modes of

transportation dependent on petroleum products will need to be displaced by those that can use Industry of

Harpers coal . On both scores it is obvious that railroads will need to recapture a large part of the freight Transportation (fuel for);

Magazine and passenger traffic lost to trucks, automobiles, and airplanes. The advantages in fuel efficiency Vehicular Travel

1973 (Magazine) are considerable: as (railroad)

10

the war in Vietnam, " the President said. He continued: " The evidence has been quite clear, we

think, that the strikes! were made against major military staging areas. And that the lines of

communication where the enemy has been concentrating his supplies and troops, and the

transportation routes and bridge, -; over which those troops have been moved against our men,

News/New York have been hit. " We think that these targets are directly related to the enemy's capacity to move ma- Vehicular Travel (route

1967 Times (News) terial into South Vietnam to kill American boys. " President Johnson was asked today why, and bridge)

to prove a pet conclusion, hecause they are so difficult to grapple with.' Perhaps the most intensive

and complete attempt to determine the comparative cost per passenger (not the fare paid by the

passenger, but the cost per passenger of providing the service) of the various modes of urban

transportation is the analysis undertaken by Meyer, Kain, and Wohl.3f (To sum up the results of

Academic/Non- their work in a paragraph or two is an unavoidable injustice; the book should be carefully read by

1974 Fiction persons interested in urban transport.) For the line-haul portion of the trip, calculated on a Vehicular Travel (urban)

Island are almost as densely populated as New York City. With 501,000 licensed motorists among

its 770,000 inhabitants, the island is rapidly becoming a little Los Angeles-complete with

photochemical smog. In an effort to stop the increasing pollution, Governor John A. Burns has

signed into law a bill that creates a transportation control commission empowered to recommend

limits on the number of cars in the state. # The law is expected to be challenged in the courts. But

Time Magazine State Senator Nadao Yoshinaga, who drafted the bill, argues: " I am banking on the principle that Entity/Agency (oversight

1972 (Magazine) the state has the right to use over cars)

he reached into the pile of money, methodically counting out five hundred dollars twice, and

pushed it to them. " Here, it's off the top. You can call it expense money, I don't care what, just so

long as you use it to set up your transportation and have enough left over to pay any tabs, like

hotels, or anybody holding chits on you. No sense in tryin' to skip out, still owin' somebody, where

1970 Fiction they're goin' to remember and talk about you. Pay your bills tomorrow so when you get your Vehicular Travel

and Philadelphia and more than one-third of all the passenger trains in the U.S., offers no hope of

improvement without Government help. " To reverse the deterioration of passenger service, " he

says, " we must have substantial assistance. '' # Real Estate Riches. Last week the Department of

Transportation proposed a Comsat-type public corporation called Railpax, which would take

over commuter and other passenger trains. But there is considerable doubt whether the

Time Magazine Administration will endorse the Government subsidies that Railpax needs. # Penn Central

1970 (Magazine) executives contend that their line lost $73 million on passengers in the first nine months of 1969 Entity/Agency (trains)

the rest for establishing bus transit, fringe parking, automated roadways, and the like. That kind of

money can only come from the U.S. Government? and justifiably so, since an efficient

transportation system is vital to an efficient economy. But to quote the nation's first Secretary of Transportation System;

Transportation Alan Boyd again: '' Congress appropriated only $175 million for mass transit for Vehicular Travel (buses,

Academic/Non- 50 states. At best one city, after a couple of years of haggling, might get $900,000. Now what the mass transit);

1974 Fiction hell good is that going to do against $1 billion available for highway projects? " 62 For Agency/Entity

over private transportation when it comes to effective utilization of space. The successful

functioning of the nation's very large cities, such as New York, Chicago, Boston, or Philadelphia,

where considerable demands are placed on travel arteries, cries out for means of transportation

possessing substantial capacity; mass transportation fits these needs. Moreover, these are the

cities which could not survive without rail rapid transit and commuter railway service. Table 2? 2 Transportation System;

Academic/Non- shows data for some selected cities and indicates the number of persons entering downtown areas Vehicular Travel (rapid

1974 Fiction during an average day, and the type of transport mode for peak-hour rail, commuter railway)

$70 million for the subsequent three years. STAFFORD. a member of the USRA board as well as

ICC chairman, urged the board to reconsider the earlier rejection. He said the loan would be far

less expensive to the federal treasury than if the ICC were forced -- as the Department of

Transportation advocates -- to require other railroads to take over Rock Island service, using the

road's track, equipment, andmanpower. MITROS said in Chicago the Rock Island " obviously

1975 News Chicago expected to get the loan. " It's kind of futile to talk about it, but in my - view nur Agency/Entity (railroads)

cut off Independence Hall and other histoHe treasures from the river and a planned Penn's Landing

for historic and cruise ships. They won. The plan now is to put the superhighway underground past

Society Hill, at a cost of $60-million a mile. Prof. Anthony R. Tomazinis, director of the

transportation studies center at the University of Pennsylvania, said in an interview that '' one of

the major improvements in the field of transportation in the last 10 years " was the requirement of

News/New York the 1968 Highway Act that more attention be paid to social and environmental considerations in

1970 Times (News) planning expressways. " This is Agency/Entity

11

features a national survey on the cost of 50 leading prescription drugs, revealing manufacturers'

markups and wide price variations from place to place. A story on working wives concludes that

most of the additional earned family income is actually eaten up by such new expenses as child

care, extra clothes, transportation and lunches out. '' How the Chairman of Merrill Lynch Invests

'' shows that he got rich, but not by following the advice that Merrill Lynch gives its odd-lot

Time Magazine clients. # Other articles deal with real estate syndicates, borrowing power and car insurance.

1972 (Magazine) Regular features include " One Family's Vehicular Travel

intelligent. Telepath's suit lost considerable pressure. We reached the ship in time to save him.

Good. We will need him later. - What is this? - Perhaps a personal rocket motor. One could place

one's foot on the pedals and balance. It appears to be transportation, not a weapon. - Nice try. -

I'm slowing down. I used to run the 100 in record time. - How long was I out? Did I miss much? - Vehicular Travel

1973 Movie Not much. A lot of good they'll get out of that rocket setting. We (personal rocket motor)

with 90,000 employes, will rank fourth in size among the 12 Cabinet-level departments. With the

authority to spend about $5.5-billion a year, it will rank fifth in annual expenditures. President

Johnson had proposed that the Maritime Administration's functions, now in the Department of

Commerce, be transferred to the Transportation Department. However, he was defeated on this in

the House under the pressure of shippers and the shipping unions. Meany Opposes Transfer One of

News/New York the principal. opponents of the transfer of the Maritime Administration to the new department was

1966 Times (News) George Meany, president of the American Federation of Labor-Congress of Industrial Agency/Entity (ships)

been through the mill and knows the kind of people we're fighting. But we do n't send men like

Chip and Tommy to places like Puerto Santos. " " Well, let's hope for the best . I sometimes think

that is what I get paid for doing. You got transportation, Worth? '' '' They called me a White

House car. I've got to get this stuff off to Pethwick. Some of my boys are standing by. " " You ca

1968 Fiction n't telephone Flores? " " Lord, no. Martinez has all the overseas lines passing through the Vehicular Travel (car)

of the private automobile are beginning to outweigh its benefits. Much of the thinking at the Urban

Mass Transportation Administration reflects this posilio, n. "' // The Case Against Mass Transit A

fairly strong case against mass transit can be made on a number of grounds. Many persons contend

that mass transportation is unattractive, inflexible, too expensive, and utterly incapable of handling

the kind of spread-out population that is now common in United States urban areas. One of the

Academic/Non- best summaries of the skeptical position on mass transportation is found in a paper by James M. Agency/Entity (private

1974 Fiction Hunnicutt, Jr., the Chief of automobile)

best solution. In fact, at one point an Interior task force concluded that, even if only oil production

were involved, the Mackenzie River route through Canada was environmentally safer than the

Valdez project since it would have fewer of the seismic problems of the Alaskan route and would

involve no marine transportation. The final Interior statement carried no such recommendation;

Harpers according to Richard Nehring's testimony before the Proxmire committee, it had been deleted by

Magazine the Department. Interior Secretary Rogers C. B. Morton testified that the Department had been Vehicular Travel

1972 (Magazine) forced to amend the draft report because the staff analysis of the Canadian alternative (marine)

I think, one that the Democratic left? and the Democratic party? Must ponder well. The clear

policy implication is that the nation must begin to move in the direction of socializing some crucial

investment decisions? for instance, taking over the entire rail system within the framework of a

national transportation plan and creating a TVA-type corporation to develop new energy

technologies for public use, rather than private profit. A

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