Special Education Law Blog: Trends in Special Education Dispute Resolution: CADRE Presents Data

Diagram of the wikipedia dispute resolution processes and realted procedures (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

At a webinar last week that will be repeated on February 13th, CADRE reported on data for the last eight years in special education dispute resolution. There is a lot of good stuff, and you can view the powerpoint here.

CADRE is a fantastic resource. We keep their website on the lafthand side of the blog because they have all kinds of goodies pertaining to dispute resolution in special education. CADRE is a great organization, and I use their stuff all the time. Check out their website here.

The eight years of data can be presented by state or nationally, and you can view activity in the various dispute resolution mechanisms over the last eight years. The report presents some interesting facts. Some of the big picture trends that CADE has identified are:

State complaints are down by 15%;
Mediation requests are up; Mediations held are up 15% in the last 7 years;
Due process hearings held are down 58%

For the 2011-2012 school year, Washington DC once again led the league in dispute resolution activity (per 10K childcount). In fact, they pretty much lapped the field. Puerto Rico was next followed by New York, Massachusetts, California, Connecticut, Virgin Islands, New Jersey, Vermont, Hawaii, Maryland & Maine. On the other end of the spectrum for the least dispute resolution activity (per 10K childcount) was American Samoa followed by Utah, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Nebraska & South Carolina. How did your state do?

I urge you to take a look at the data. More fun with numbers!