Fields v. Wash. Dep't of Early Learning

434 P.3d 999

Christal FIELDS, Petitioner,

v.State of Washington DEPARTMENT OF EARLY LEARNING Respondent.

No. 95024-5

Supreme Court of Washington.

Oral Argument Date: May 8, 2018

Filed: FEBRUARY 21, 2019

Prachi Vipinchandra Dave, Public Defender Association, 110 Prefontaine Place S, Suite 502, Seattle, WA 98104-2626, Toby James Marshall, Terrell Marshall Law Group PLLC, 936 N. 34th Street, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98103-8869, for Petitioner.

Patricia Lee Allen, Washington State Attorney General, 800 5th Avenue, Suite 2000, Seattle, WA 98104-3188, Alan D. Copsey, Office of the Attorney General, P.O. Box 40100, 1125 Washington Street SE, Olympia, WA 98504-0100, for Respondent.

Sujatha Jagadeesh Branch, Northwest Justice Project, 401 2nd Avenue S, Suite 407, Seattle, WA 98104-3811, Nicholas Brian Allen, Attorney at Law, 101 Yesler Way, Suite 300, Seattle, WA 98104-2528, Candelaria Murillo, Anderson Law PLLC, 5861 W. Clearwater Avenue, Kennewick, WA 99336-1849, Sara Lyle Ainsworth, Legal Team, 1517 12th Avenue, Suite 101, Seattle, WA 98122-3956, for Amicus Curiae Civil Survival.

Sara Lyle Ainsworth, SLA Legal Team, 1517 12th Avenue, Suite 101, Seattle, WA 98122-3956, Priya Walia, Surge Reproductive Justice, 1402 Third Avenue, Suite 201, Seattle, WA 98101, for Amicus Curiae Legal Voice, Surge, The Incarcerated Mothers Advocacy Project, The Public Defender Association.

Rebecca A. Smith, National Employment Law Project, 317 17th Avenue S, Seattle, WA 98144-2147, for Amicus Curiae National Employment Law Project, Washington State Labor Council, AFL-CIO.

Meagan J. MacKenzie, Northwest Justice Project, 711 Capitol Way S, Suite 704, Olympia, WA 98501-1237, Deborah Perluss, Northwest Justice Project, 401 2nd Avenue S, Suite 407, Seattle, WA 98104-3811, Sara Lyle Ainsworth, SLA Legal Team, 1517 12th Avenue, Suite 101, Seattle, WA 98122-3956, for Amicus Curiae Northwest Justice Project.

Sara Lyle Ainsworth, Legal Team, 1517 12th Avenue, Suite 101, Seattle, WA 98122-3956, for Amicus Curiae SEIU 925.

YU, J.

¶ 1 This case concerns the extent to which a criminal record may preclude a person from supporting herself through lawful employment in her chosen field. In 1988, petitioner Christal Fields pleaded guilty to attempted second degree robbery for trying to snatch a woman’s purse. As a result, Fields was permanently disqualified from working at any licensed childcare facility in Washington pursuant to regulations promulgated by respondent Department of Early Learning (DEL). Fields raises state and federal constitutional challenges to these regulations, both facially and as applied to her. We decline to reach Fields’s facial challenges and state constitutional arguments. However, we hold that DEL’s regulations prohibiting any individualized consideration of Fields’s qualifications at the administrative level violate Fields’s federal right to procedural due process as applied. We therefore reverse the Court of Appeals and remand for further administrative proceedings consistent with this opinion.

FACTUAL BACKGROUND AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

¶ 2 The relevant factual background as recounted by the Court of Appeals is undisputed:

Fields grew up in a dysfunctional home environment with rampant drug abuse. At the age of 16, she became homeless and turned to prostitution and drugs. In 1988[, at age 22], Fields attempted to snatch a purse to help pay for her drug habit. She pleaded guilty to attempted second degree robbery.

Fields continued to lead a troubled life until 2006 when she turned her life around by successfully completing a drug program. She has been clean and sober ever since. For two years she resided in group housing. During this time, she was promoted to resident manager because of her responsibility and commitment to working with others. Many support letters from employers and coworkers since then attest to Fields’s character.

On February 6, 2013, Fields submitted a portable background check to DEL. Based on the information Fields provided, DEL cleared Fields to work at a childcare facility. She worked in that childcare facility for six months after she received her background clearance. Fields loves working with children and has taken advantage of every available training opportunity to improve her skills.

A local news report on childcare centers brought Fields’s undisclosed criminal history to DEL’s attention.

Fields v. Dep’t of Early Learning , No. 75406-8-I, slip op. at 1-2, 2017 WL 3588960 (Wash. Ct. App. Aug. 21, 2017) (unpublished) (footnote omitted), http://www.courts.wa.gov/opinions/pdf/754068.pdf.

¶ 3 The licensing supervisor for DEL sent a notice of disqualification to Fields. The notice informed Fields that she was permanently disqualified, effective immediately, "meaning that you cannot work with or have unsupervised access to child care children." Clerk’s Papers at 49. Fields appealed to the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH). Fields also requested reconsideration by the licensing supervisor, pointing to both factual inaccuracies in the notice of disqualification and evidence of her rehabilitation. It does not appear from the record that Fields’s request for reconsideration has been considered on its merits.

¶ 4 On appeal, DEL moved for summary judgment on the sole basis that in accordance with former WAC 170-06-0120(1) (2015), "the appellant must be disqualified from having unsupervised access to children or obtaining a [childcare] license under [former] WAC 170-06-0070(1) [ (2015) ] due to her 1988 conviction of attempted second degree robbery." Id. at 140. Fields did not challenge the fact of her 1988 conviction but contended that the disqualification regulations violate her constitutional right to due process of law, both facially and as applied. OAH determined that such questions were beyond the scope of its review and therefore granted summary judgment to DEL.

¶ 5 Fields petitioned for review in superior court, again arguing that the disqualification regulations violate her state and federal rights to procedural and substantive due process, both facially and as applied. DEL opposed Fields’s arguments on the merits. The superior court dismissed the petition for review, determining that Fields had not met her burden of proving that the disqualification regulations are unconstitutional. The Court of Appeals affirmed in an unpublished opinion, and we granted Fields’s petition for review. Fields v. Dep’t of Early Learning , 189 Wash.2d 1031, 407 P.3d 1149 (2018).

ISSUE

¶ 6 Are DEL’s permanent disqualification regulations unconstitutional, either facially or as applied to Fields?

ANALYSIS

¶ 7 Fields contends that she is entitled to relief because "[t]he order, or the statute or rule on which the order is based, is in violation of constitutional provisions on its face or as applied." RCW 34.05.570(3)(a). Specifically, she raises challenges based on the due process clauses of the state and federal constitutions, both facially and as applied.¹ U.S. CONST . amend. XIV, § 1 ; WASH. CONST . art. I, § 3. We review the constitutionality of agency rules de novo, using the same standards that we use when reviewing the constitutionality of statutes. Amunrud v. Bd. of Appeals , 158 Wash.2d 208, 215, 143 P.3d 571 (2006). "Statutes are presumed to be constitutional, and the burden to show unconstitutionality is on the challenger." Id. The challenger can meet this burden only "if argument and research show that there is no reasonable doubt that the statute violates the constitution." Id.

¶ 8 We hold that DEL’s regulations do violate federal procedural due process as applied to Fields.² We therefore reverse the Court of Appeals.

A. Background information regarding DEL

¶ 9 At the time of Fields’s permanent disqualification, DEL was an administrative agency within the executive branch that the legislature created in response to "a shortage of high quality services and supports for children ages birth to three and their parents and caregivers." Former RCW 43.215.005(2)(c) (2010). In general, "[t]he primary duties of the department [were] to implement state early learning policy and to coordinate, consolidate, and integrate child care and early learning programs in order to administer programs and funding as efficiently as possible." Former RCW 43.215.020(2) (2016).

¶ 10 Effective July 1, 2018, DEL became part of the newly created Department of Children, Youth, and Families (DCYF). LAWS OF 2017, 3d Spec. Sess., ch. 6. However, Fields’s disqualification was effected by DEL, based solely on the DEL regulations then in effect. Given this procedural history, we decline to speculate on how a factually similar case would (or should) be handled by DCYF in the future.³

¶ 11 The legislature specifically tasked DEL with administering a licensing program for childcare facilities. Former RCW 43.215.200(3) - (4) (2015). In order to receive and maintain a license to operate, childcare facilities were required to comply with applicable statutes and DEL regulations and were subject to regular inspections and mandatory reporting requirements. Operating an unlicensed childcare facility is a misdemeanor. Former RCW 43.215.340 (2006), recodified as RCW 43.216.365.

¶ 12 As part of the licensing program, DEL is required to run background checks on anyone who wants to work in a childcare facility in order to determine whether the "individual is of appropriate character, suitability, and competence to provide child care and early learning services to children." Former RCW 43.215.215(1) (2011). Pursuant to its rule making authority, DEL adopted administrative regulations for running these background checks.

¶ 13 DEL’s regulations provide that "[a] subject individual who has a background containing any of the permanent convictions on the director’s list, [former] WAC 170-06-0120(1), will be permanently disqualified from providing licensed child care, caring for children or having unsupervised access to children in child care." Former WAC 170-06-0070(1), recodified as WAC...