Jamie S. v. Milwaukee Public Schools

In action under IDEA alleging that defendant-school district failed to properly identify children with disabilities for purposes of providing special education services, Dist. Ct. erred in certifying for class action treatment claims of children who were eligible to receive special education services and who are or will be denied or delayed entry into IEP process. Class, as composed by Dist. Ct., was fatally indefinite where relevant criteria for identifying potentially eligible students was unknown, and instant certified class lacked commonality of either legal or factual question to satisfy Rule 23(a)(2) since claims of students necessarily required particularized inquiry into circumstances of each student. Also, prior settlement by defendant-state agency with plaintiff-class must be vacated where: (1) underlying class certification has been vacated; and (2) record showed that defendant-state agency had no authority to direct defendant-school district to comply with terms of settlement. (Partial dissent filed.)