|
 GAO
Report : Dispute Resolution Under IDEA
General Accounting Office, September 9, 2003
For more articles like this
visit
https://www.bridges4kids.org.
Special Education
Numbers of
Formal Disputes Are Generally Low and States Are Using Mediation
and Other Strategies to Resolve Conflicts
Results in Brief
The four states we visited reported that disputes between
school districts and families have often centered on fundamental
issues of identifying students’ need for special education, the
development and implementation of their individualized education
programs (IEP), and the educational setting in which they were
placed. For example, school officials and parents sometimes
disagreed about what setting would afford the appropriate
educational placement for a student—a regular classroom, a
special needs classroom, or a specialized school. Such conflicts
can lead to formal disputes. Officials in six of the eight
school districts we visited mentioned that disputes had resulted
from decisions over students’ educational placements.
While data are limited and inexact, four national studies
indicate that the use of the three formal dispute resolution
mechanisms has been generally low relative to the number of
children with disabilities. Due process hearings, the most
resource-intense dispute mechanism, were the least used
nationwide. Using data from the National Association of State
Directors of Special Education, we calculated that nationwide,
in 2000, about 5 due process hearings were held per 10,000
students with disabilities. According to the these data, over
three-quarters of the due process hearings had been held in five
states— California, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and
Pennsylvania—and the District of Columbia. Mediation activity
was also low. Another national study reported in 2003 that the
median number of mediations for states was 4 for every 10,000
students with disabilities in school year 1999-2000. In May
2003, SEEP estimated that 4,266 mediation cases occurred during
the 1998-99 school year, which we calculated as a rate of about
7 mediations per 10,000 students with disabilities. Also, using
the latter study, we calculated that about 10 state complaints
were filed for every 10,000 students with disabilities in the
1998-99 school year.
Officials in all four states we visited were emphasizing the use
of mediation to resolve disputes between families and school
districts, and some states had developed additional approaches
for early resolution. State officials told us they found that
mediation was successful in resolving disputes, strengthening
relationships between families and educators, saving financial
resources, and reaching resolution more quickly. The University
of the Pacific reported that 93 percent of the mediation cases
in California resulted in agreements between families and
schools during the 2001-02 fiscal year; the cost of a mediator
was about one-tenth that of a hearing officer. In addition,
there were a variety of alternative strategies in place in
several states and localities to resolve disputes earlier and
with less acrimony. For example, Iowa exceeded IDEA requirements
by allowing parties to request a pre-appeal conference to
mediate disputes prior to filing for a due process hearing. This
conference was used five times more often by families and
educators than mediation in conjunction with a filing for a due
process hearing. Ohio, on the other hand, developed a parent
mentor program in which parents of students with disabilities
were hired to provide training and information about special
education to educators and other parents of children with
disabilities and to attend IEP meetings at parent or staff
request. Data for measuring the cost-effectiveness of this and
other such programs, however, were limited.
Officials in the eight local school districts we interviewed
said they had few problems responding to state complaint
notifications in a timely way; and those problems were generally
minor, causing modest delays. For example, Los Angeles Unified
School District officials said that complaint notifications
sometimes lacked supporting information, such as copies of the
specific IEP in question or relevant mediation agreements or
evaluations. In some cases, the notifications did not identify a
child’s school or date of birth. These shortcomings, officials
indicated, generally caused only a few days’ delay in responding
appropriately to the state.
back to the top ~
back to Breaking News
~ back to
What's New
|
