Due process hearings is the forum for resolving special ed disputes before going to court. These hearings are currently under attack, but Professor Weber's new law review article defends due process hearings. What do you think? Have you had a due process experience. Leave a comment but please no names!
Due process is a double edged sword. On the one side, due process is a valuable protection for students, families, schools, and teachers. However, there are many money-hungry advocates trolling schools looking for insignificant faults to capitalize on. I firmly believe that teachers and schools in general need to be held accountable for their actions. However, I do not believe a school should be shut down due to sending a meeting notice one day late, only because the family's lawyer needs a new BMW. I guess their are sharks in all waters, but often due process leads to a student getting serviced at a segregated school for students with disabilities. Although some students truly do need such a move, I have personally seen students placed in these segregated environments without true need, negatively affecting their psychological state.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.
JG
Although I believe everybody wants to avoid a Due Process hearing as much as possible, I do believe that it is necessary to have due process in place. If a consensus cannot be reached within the IEP team for certain issues, there has to be some way of resolution that includes a person that does not have invested interest in the matter. I have never been in a due process hearing, but I have been in a couple of IEP meetings that have felt like one. It is not fun. Hopefully, all members of the IEP team are using effective communication to avoid due process hearings in the first place.
ReplyDeleteAnon,
ReplyDeleteThanks for your comment.
JG