Due Process

While most disputes concerning residential placement appear to involve the parents’ beliefs that the student requires residential services while the school believes it can meet the student’s educational needs, we have recently had a case where the school requested a hearing as it believed residential services were required whereas the parents were opposed. This situation led us to some internal discussions, and I thought I would ask the rest of you your thoughts: 1.

How do other states report the number of written settlement agreements reached through resolution meetings?  How is this information suppose to be reported?

How do you report whether a resolution meeting was held and whether an agreement was reached? Do we construe this strictly? (resolution meeting, agreement on all issue) What if the parties agree to use mediation in lieu of a resolution meeting? What if the parties hold a resolution meeting, don’t resolve the issues at the meeting but do resolve the issues prior to hearing? Does it matter whether they reach resolution within the 30 day resolution period? What if the parties don’t hold a resolution meeting but do resolve the hearing issues through settlement negotiations?

Any input about what the procedures are in your state for a filing party to withdraw their request for a due process hearing would be appreciated. We are interested in your procedures beyond the typical reasons for withdrawal (full resolution at a resolution session, mediation or private settlement).  For example, a pro se parent wants to withdraw their request after a resolution session or mediation that did not resolve the issues. Our general questions about this include: 1) Is the ability to withdraw a hearing request outlined in your state regulations or as a policy/procedure?

For states that keep copies of the settlement/mediated agreement, if the parties settle the case, are those settlement agreements submitted to the hearing officer? Does the hearing officer need to approve of those? 

For states that keep copies of the settlement/mediated agreement, if the parties settle the case, are those settlement agreements submitted to the hearing officer? Does the hearing officer need to approve of those? 

For dispute resolution supervisors, what documents do the folks who conduct your due process hearing provide to you? Do you keep a file as well, or do only they (the hearing officers) maintain due process files?

Please share policy language and/or your office‘s procedure for maintaining and certifying a due process hearing record to an appeals court.  And do you provide additional copies of  transcripts, exhibits and other items in the record to parties upon request? 

We have made recent efforts to improve our systems to protect student records throughout the various dispute resolution processes. We are in the process of rolling out an online dispute resolution system to assist with this. However, in the meantime, we have tried other methods of protecting student information sent via email including encrypted emails to parties in specific cases. This has not been altogether successful as the encryption system does not work for everyone and frequently, in almost every case, we have to resend documents in order for all the parties to access.

How many other states post hearing officer decisions on their websites?  If not, are other states making redacted hearing officer decisions available to the public?  I am aware that 34 CFR 99 requires that the SEA shall provide to the state advisory committee a copy of each decision of the hearing officers, including findings of fact, after the deletion of personally identifiable information but am uncertain if other states make sure decisions available to the general public.