California Special Education Decisions May 2010- summary of cases

There were nine Special Education Decisions issued by California Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) in May 2010. The issues in these nine cases were very diverse ranging from alleged violations of the Hughes Bill, Districts failure to provide Free and Appropriate Public Education (FAPE) for various reasons including failure to provide appropriate designated services, failure to offer the Least Restrictive Environment, failure to provide a specific teacher and failure to adequately assess in all areas of suspected disability.

Of the nine decisions issued, four of the Due Process Complaints were filed by School Districts: Poway Unified School District, Cupertino Union School District, La Mesa Spring –Valley School District and Patterson Joint Union School district. Parents on behalf of their child against Districts filed the other five Complaints.

Decisions issued by OAH are required by law to indicate the prevailing party. In the nine Decisions rendered in May 2010, six of the Decisions listed the District as the prevailing party, two were split partially for the Student and partially for the District and one Decision was issued wherein the Student fully prevailed.

Obtain an Independent Educational Evaluation (IEE) at Public Expense

Has your child recently been evaluated by the School District? Do you read the assessment report and scratch your head, because the child described is not the child you know? Are aspects of your child’s characteristics missing? Or worse yet have you requested an independent evaluation and been ignored by the School District?

Federal Special Education Regulations mandate that “A parent has the right to an independent educational evaluation (“IEE”) at public (school district) expense if the parent disagrees with an evaluation obtained by the public agency.”

Once a parent has requested, in writing, an IEE, citing that they do not agree with the current assessment, the School District, must without delay, either agree to fund the IEE or file a Due Process Complaint to request a determination that its evaluation is appropriate. A parent need not explain the reason for their disagreement; they must only notify the School District that they do not agree with the assessment.

More often than not, filing and completing a Due Process Hearing to defend its assessment will cost the School District much more money than merely funding the requested IEE, so it makes economical sense for the School District to acquiesce.

If the School District ignores your request for an IEE or says “no” and does not file a Due Process Complaint, you can force the issue by filing a Compliance Complaint with the California Department of Education.

Once you have requested an IEE in writing you must wait “a reasonable amount of time” for a response before you do anything further. There is no hard and fast rule about what constitutes a “reasonable” amount of time, but at least 15 school days seems appropriate, before further action is taken.

Should you have any problems with your School District or have further questions on this or other topics, do not hesitate to contact me, Kathy Greco, Esq. at http://www.facebook.com/SpecialEdForumKGEsq or SpecialEdForumKGesq@gmail.com and follow me on Twitter, SpecialEdForum