The Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction
(OSPI), Special Education Section encourages parents and school districts to
work together to try to resolve disagreements that affect a student’s
special education program. There may be occasions when a parent or an adult
student disagrees with the district’s program and does not think the issues
can be resolved through the Individualized Education Program (IEP) team or
through communication with school district administrators. There may also be
times when a district believes it is unable to resolve disputes with a
parent that involve the district’s ability to provide a free appropriate
public education (FAPE) to the student. When parents and districts are not
able to resolve differences through direct communication, OSPI provides more
formal dispute resolution options. The following pages (follow links below)
provide an overview of the three dispute resolution processes available for
students age 3 through 21 under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities
Education Act of 2004 (IDEA). More information about these dispute
resolution processes and other procedural protections for special education
students are described in the Notice of Procedural Safeguards. School
districts are required to give parents a copy of their Procedural Safeguards
each school year. A copy of the Procedural Safeguards is also available on
the OSPI, Special Education publications webpage,
or you can simply follow the link located in the Quick links box on the
right side of this page.
Mediation services are offered by OSPI at no charge to parents or school districts. Mediation is available to help resolve problems involving the initial identification of a student, evaluations of the student, the educational placement, and the educational services provided to a student (FAPE). A mediation session is conducted by a trained, impartial mediator who assists the parties in discussing the issues in order to try and reach an agreement.
Any individual or organization may file a citizen complaint if it believes a school district, another public agency serving special education students, a private agency under contract with a public agency to serve special education students, an educational service district, or the state has violated federal or state laws or regulations implementing IDEA. OSPI investigates the complaints and issues a decision addressing the allegations.
Both parents and school districts may request an impartial due process hearing involving issues about the identification, evaluation, placement, or provision of a FAPE to a student. The Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) assigns an independent administrative law judge (ALJ) to conduct the special education due process hearing where both the school district and the parents personally appear and present information and documents regarding the issues to the ALJ.
Please refer to the Quick Links box on the right side of this page for information about other organizations and resources which may be available to you.
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