CADRE Report on Numbers of Special Ed Cases over Five Year Period: Fun with Numbers

View Larger Map

The Consortium for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education, more affectionately referred to as CADRE, does a number of great things. One of which is to keep track of all of the mediations, due process hearings and state complaints around the country. They have recently released a compilation of data for the five year period ending with the 2007-2008 school year. You can read all of the 34 pages of data for Part B (ages 5 and up) here. The Part C (ages 3 - 5) data may be read here.

The following quote is from the five year summary of the data by CADRE: "Nationally, the number of complaints filed peaked in 2004-05 and has declined by about 10% since then. The number of mediations peaked in 2004-05, then declined sharply in 2005-06 as the resolution process was implemented; in the last two years, the number of mediations held and agreements reached have increased again. Due process complaint filings have shown a very slight decline on average but with variability from year to year. The reported number of due process hearings fully adjudicated peaked in 2004-05 but has declined sharply over the last four years."

Some interesting numbers jump off the pages. One involves the decrease in hearings. From 03-04 to 07-08 the number of due process hearing complaints filed decreased from 17,688 to 15,534. The number of fully adjudicated complaints (ie, a decision issued) for the same period was cut by more than a quarter from 4,178 to 2950. (Isn't it amazing that with nearly seven million kids in special education that we have only this number of complaints!)

Also interesting is the concentration of the complaints in certain areas of the country. 80% of the due process complaints in 2007-2008 came from six states. The concentration is even more interesting if you look at the charts considering the number of complaints per 100,000 special education students. This should eliminate the effect of total populations of states. For every 10, 000 special ed kids the following states had these numbers of due process complaints:

Washington, DC 3,002
Puerto Rico 171
New York 134
Hawaii 43
Virgin Islands 45
Massachusetts 37
New Jersey 36
California 36
Maryland 31
Connecticut 30
Pennsylvania 27
New Hampshire 26

(No other state had more than 12)

Although most of the states on the list are generally considered to be among the league leaders in due process complaints, I am surprised by the huge average number of complaints per 10K from Puerto Rico, Hawaii, the Virgin Islands, and New Hampshire. Maybe it is the warm weather?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Yo Ho: Puerto Rico Pushes Rum Bill (blogs.wsj.com)
• What is Conflict Mediation? (brainz.org)

>Reblog this post [with Zemanta]">

Special Education Hearing Officer Qualifications - Part II

Image by noyava via Flickr

In the first part of this series last week, I discussed the options that parties have when they have a dispute concerning the educational program, etc for a child with a disability. The options are numerous and sometimes confusing, so I encourage you to read that post before the others in this series. Today, I'm going to discuss the new (since 2005) mandatory qualifications for hearing officers. You can find a searchable version of the he IDEA statute and the federal regs at the U. S Department of Education "Building the Legacy" website, which also has a link on the lefthand side of this blog. In future posts I will explore my ideas regarding the training of special ed hearing officers and maybe their care and feeding. The final post in the series will include some thoughts on qualities that make a good hearing officer. As I said last week, please note that I have a number of potential biases here. First, I am a hearing officer and/or a mediator for four states. Second, I do a lot of special ed law consulting for states. Third, I have conducted hearing officer trainings at national conferences, at regional trainings and for a number of individual states. I have trained hearing officers from every state, and I love training hearing officers. I have definite opinions here and my business interests could color my thinking. So please bear that disclosure in mind.

Before the 2004 reauthorization changes took effect (on July 1, 2005), the only qualification for a due process hearing officer under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act was that the hearing officer not be an employee of the State Education Department or the school district. (old) § 615 (f)(3); and that he not have a personal or professional interest that would conflict with objectivity, 34 C.F.R. Section 300.508(a)(2)(old regs). The reauthorization added three more qualifications for due process hearing officers. The following new qualities were required for a special ed hearing officer: the knowledge and ability to conduct hearings in accordance with standard legal practice; the knowledge and ability to write decisions in accordance with standard legal practice; knowledge of and ability to understand special education law. Section 615 (f)(3)(A)(ii)-(iv); 34 C.F.R. § 300.511(c).

So what is your opinion, are these qualifications enough to be a good hearing officer? Is more needed? On the other hand, would we be lucky to find a trial court judge on any given day who met these criteria? What do you say?

Related articles by Zemanta

• Unnecessary Barriers Study Reveals Government Has Work to Do in Hiring and Retaining Americans with Disabilities (eon.businesswire.com)
• Disabled hate crime help pledged (news.bbc.co.uk)
• Disability Advocates Feel Ditched By Palin (alan.com)

Seclusion & Restraints: Big Decision by Ninth Circuit

Image via Wikipedia

The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit handed down a decision in the case of Payne v. Peninsula School District on March 18th. This case involves seclusion and restraints- the current hot button issue in special education law. The Court required exhaustion of administrative remedies, which means that the parents had to first file a due process hearing and get an administrative decision before filing in court. You can read the entire opinion and the dissent here.

I will agree that the court's reasoning is a little tricky, but the conclusion is solid. When an injury involves educational harm to a student with a disability, it makes sense that the provisions of IDEA providing a right to a due process hearing should be utilized first before turning to court. I think that given the white hot public awareness of the abuse of seclusion and restraints, these cases will be on the rise.

Special ed hearing officers should be prepared. Of course, the issue before the hearing officer will not be damages to redress any physical injuries. That is still the province of the courts in places where such damages are available. The hearing officer can only rule on whether there is a violation of IDEA, the special education statute, and what remedies are appropriate to redress the educational harm. But given the exhaustion of administrative remedies ruling of the Payne court, and numerous similar decisions by other courts, hearing officers should be prepared for lots of seclusion and restraints abuse types of cases in the near future.

My crystal ball has been wrong before, but I think this prediction will come true.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Court: Student can't sue over 'Ave Maria' ban (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• What is a Court of Equity? (brainz.org)
• Obama Nominates Progessive Goodwin Liu for 9th Circuit (mydd.com)

Reblog this post [with Zemanta]">

Why Can't Johnny Read? NAEP Report Shows No Reading Progress

Image by jackhynes via Flickr

The nation's report card, formally called the National Assessment of Educational Progress, for reading was released yesterday. The results are grim. The 2009 reading scores for eighth graders are one point higher (out of 500 points) than the scores for 2007 for eighth graders. For fourth graders the scores were exactly the same in 2009 as they were in 2007. Even more depressing is the fact that since the NAEP testing began in 1992, these scores of both fourth and eight graders have gone up four points each (remember this is 4 out of 500). A number of resources are available on the NAEP website. Starting at this map, you can check out your state profiles. You can compare data across states here. Here is the entire report.

OK, this is not really a special ed issue, except that all kids need to be able to read. So my question, and I don't think that this is out of place, is after all these years of reforms, and all the new peer-reviewed, data-driven, scientific based reading methodologies, why can't Johnny read?

Any theories?

Related articles by Zemanta

• U.S. students average in reading (cnn.com)
• Wash. scores on national reading test hold steady (seattletimes.nwsource.com)
• Reading Scores Hold Steady on Nationwide Test (abcnews.go.com)
• Reading Scores Hold Steady on Nationwide Test (usnews.com)