The Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) recently released a new report, Special Education Dispute Resolution: A Critical Safeguard for IDEA’s Guarantee of Equal Education for Students with Disabilities.
The report lays out the role of the dispute resolution system and due process available under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) and comes at a time when certain rights and funding for students with disabilities are in jeopardy.
The new report provides parents, caregivers, and students with a guide for how they can use the dispute resolution system and file for due process under current law.
Due process can be used to resolve disputes between parents and caregivers and school districts as it relates to a child’s right to a Free Appropriate Public Education. Examples can include requesting a due process hearing for denied services or mediation to settle Individualized Education Program disputes.
COPAA argues that recent inaccurate portrayals of due process suggest it is a system “spiraling into chaos – one in which families of children with disabilities frequently file for hearings, where due process is always lengthy and adversarial, and where the process rarely leads to meaningful change…”
But, as COPAA points out, due process hearings are actually the backbone of protecting the rights of students with disabilities and must be preserved.
The COPAA report highlights that, while incredibly rare, due process serves as a “critical safeguard when disagreements arise between families and schools, but is not available to all families, especially for those with limited financial resources, whose first language is not English, and for those living in rural areas.”
The COPAA report also lays out proposals that not only “maintain and advance student and parent protections under IDEA and other statutes” but also provide more IEP trainings for educators and create a cost-free dispute resolution option for families.
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