GAO: Mediation can help solve special education disputes.

This article discusses the U.S. General Accounting Office's (GAO) report on benefits of mediation in solving special education disputes.  The role of mediation in providing viable resolutions to disputes between parents and schools over the education of disabled students is discussed as well as reducing the burden and cost of due-process hearings; percentage of mediation cases in California that resulted in agreements between parents and schools in the 2001-2002 fiscal year.