Special Education Hearing Officers: Balance and Bias

Abstract

The use of a simple 50%-50% box score of decisions for parents and districts, respectively, is a false measure of the impartiality of hearing officers under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). This analysis canvasses relevant structural factors that the stakeholders, the mass media, and the professional literature have failed to recognize both generally and systematically. These factors include IDEA amendments, regulatory revisions, Supreme Court decisions, lower court precedents, and state system changes that cumulatively suggest that a more nuanced view is both appropriate and necessary.