White

Plaintiff Douglas R. White appeals from a judgment entered after the trial court sustained defendants’ demurrer to plaintiff’s second amended complaint without leave to amend. Plaintiff, a developmentally disabled (handicapped) person residing in Stockton State Hospital, claims defendants wrongfully failed to spend money received by the state under the federal Education of the Handicapped Act ( 20 U.S.C. § 1400 et seq.) (hereafter EHA) on handicapped children in state hospitals. As a consequence, the class of eligible children in state hospitals has been and will be denied the free appropriate public education due it under the EHA.

Plaintiff’s complaint alleged various theories upon which he and his class were entitled either to money damages or to an order compelling defendants to spend EHA funds for their education.

We conclude plaintiff and his class are not entitled to money damages for any past denial of a free appropriate public education. We further conclude plaintiff and his class cannot pursue a lawsuit to compel the expenditure of current EHA funds for their benefit without first exhausting an available administrative procedure. However, we also conclude…