The South Carolina Department of Education (SCDE) Office of Special Education Services (OSES) provides informal dispute resolution assistance to families and schools as they address concerns related to programming for students with disabilities. This assistance includes providing facilitators, when requested, to assist with the individualized education program (IEP) process. Facilitation is available at no cost to parents and school districts and is a voluntary process. Both parties must agree that it would be valuable to have a neutral person, the facilitator, participate in an IEP team meeting to assist the team in discussing issues and reaching consensus.
Practitioner Standards & Professional Development: 

Practitioner Qualifications

Facilitators represent members of the education community experienced in working with special service matters. They have received training in facilitation, conflict resolution and the IEP development process. This group of individuals includes leaders of family and parent organizations, special education mediators, community mediation groups and institutions of higher education.

Public Awareness & Outreach Activities: 

Availability/Accessing Services

Requests for the service can be made through the Ombudsman at the South Carolina Department of Education.
 

SC - Information and Requesting Facilitated IEP

PDF icon Download SC-13 FIEP info and request.pdf (59.94 KB)

SC - Request for Facilitated IEP Meeting (Parent)

https://scoses.formstack.com/forms/fiep_request_form_parent_

SC - FIEP participation agreement 2023-2024

PDF icon Download SC-14 FIEP Participant Agreement Form 2023-2024.pdf (42.53 KB)

Materials/Activities

SC - FIEP Meeting Feedback Form

https://scoses.formstack.com/forms/fiep_team_meeting_feedback_survey
Evaluation & Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI): 

2013 (year 5 of implementation)

As of the 2023-2024 school year, the SCDE has participated in the FIEP program for ten years. During the 2023-2024 school year, of the 1273 respondents, 925 strongly agree and 172 agree that they would recommend facilitations to others. While 1009 strongly agree and 104 agree that the facilitator acted as a neutral party, not showing favoritism. Nine hundred fifty-three of participants strongly agree and 148 agree that they understood the role of the facilitator and found the facilitator to be instrumental in helping guide the IEP team.

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