Family Services

What To Do When Mediation Is Unsuccessful

Under IDEA, a school district must offer an IEP with placement and services to eligible students.

When a parent disagrees with the placement offer, IDEA provides for an administrative appeal of the IEP.

This appeal is called a due process hearing. Once the appeal is filed, IDEA provides for opportunities prior to hearing to attempt to settle the dispute.

One of these forums is called a resolution session, the other is called mediation.

At Resolution
At the resolution session which occurs no more than ten days after the filing of the complaint, the parent meets with an expanded IEP team to discuss possible solutions to the dispute. This is a good early opportunity to focus the district’s attention on your child’s problem as your case will be one of several cases the district has to resolve simultaneously.

Sometimes even if no agreement is reached at the resolution session, the parties make considerable progress and agree to keep negotiating via phone, fax, and email.

If a settlement agreement is not hammered out prior to the mediation meeting, hopefully the settlement can be finalized at mediation which typically is convened two weeks after the resolution session.

At Mediation
At mediation, there should be discussion about the parent’s legal theories and the reason why settlement makes better sense for both parties – namely it enables the District to spend money on student services rather than legal fees.

Statistics show us that in California a large number of cases, upwards of 75%, settle at mediation or prior to hearing, but after mediation.

IEP Prep Clinic: April 4, Olympia WA

By Bonnie Yates, Esq
In the words of the younger generation, a big shout out to beautiful Olympia, TACA Washington and Fertile Ground Guesthouse for hosting our Washington IEP Prep Clinic. The event video will be available soon at this site.
I especially want to thank Karen Nelson and Gail DiManzo for allowing us to hold the [...]

Spring IEP Season: Defend Your Child’s Rights In The Face Of Budget Woes And Program Cuts

Parents in Los Angeles Unified School District have raised the alarm that the district is closing many of the special education programs in neighborhood elementary schools and will be busing children to centralized school sites, a money-saving measure that will help the district accommodate staff reductions. If the changes are instituted, children in these programs will be forced to deal with transportation difficulties and transitions to new settings with higher student:teacher ratios, and will be denied the chance to go to their local school with their neighbors and siblings.

Housecleaning For Springtime (Or how busy, overextended but effective parents can prepare for IEP season)

I guess the crazy busyness of Spring IEP season is just around the corner. For the newly initiated members of our special ed family, what this means is that the District has 3.5 months to finish all of its annual IEPs that it didn’t get to in earlier months. Not too surprisingly, this results in calendar logjam and lots of rushing to complete assessments and to compress complex meetings into short amounts of time. If you are a parent and you are preparing for an IEP at this time of year, here are some things that I hope will help a lot.

Families and Schools: A Level Playing Field Allows For Open Communication

As a special education attorney, I help improve the communication between parents and schools so that they can work together as a team to develop appropriate special education programming for the child.

Assessment Basics under IDEA

Standardized tests (assessments) are the part of the IEP process that parents most often have difficulty understanding. Here are a few of the most frequently asked questions that parents have regarding assessments and their use at IEP team meetings:

What are a school district’s obligations with respect to ensuring that students with special needs are assessed?

What does IDEA mean by “trained and knowledgeable personnel”?

What qualifies as an “evaluation” under IDEA?

What data does the District have to consider when conducting an evaluation?

Can the District change my child’s eligibility without conducting an evaluation ?

San Francisco Parents: Meet Bonnie Yates to Discuss Very Recent Changes to the Lanterman Act

Bonnie Yates will meet with parents Monday, August 24, from 5-7 p.m. at the Stanford Court Hotel, 905 California Street, in San Francisco.
The subject will be a discussion about very recent changes to the Lanterman Act and how it affects your child’s receipt of behavior therapy.
As amended July 1, 2009, Welfare and [...]

How We Win

It may seem surprising and counterintuitive, but the legal standard in IDEA cases requires the parent to prove that the District’s offer is inappropriate. The District can win the hearing merely by showing that its offer conferred more than de minimus educational benefit for the student. Not surprisingly, therefore, many decisions are decided in favor of the school district.

IPP Negotiations

The process of developing a child’s IPP involves parents, service providers and professionals.

Due Process Hearing

A Due Process Hearing is hearing before an administrative law judge to resolve a dispute between the family of a disabled student and the school district.

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