Due Process Hearings are an essential part of the special education process for parents and students with disabilities. Due process is the system in which a family is given the opportunity to challenge the contents of an IEP or the whole IEP. It also gives the family and the student the opportunity to challenge the placement of the student or the students program. I found several great artifacts to provide information about Due Process Hearings.
The first artifact that I found is a video. This video provides information on due process and why it is important. It helps better under stand the importance of these hearing and the benefits that can be gained form them. This video helps to explain that without the parents right to due process the rights provided to them to help resolve issues would be “Meaningless”. I hope you find this video as informative as I did. This video will help students and their parents see the importance of these hearing and hopefully they will be able to use this information to guide them if they need future help with a due process hearing. The following link will take you to the Due Process video.
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/special-education-due-process-proceedings/2158095535
The second item that I found for this Blog is for students and parents of student who live in the state of Texas. This link: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/special.ed/hearings/ will take you to a page of the Texas Education Agency. This page provides you with information about past due process hearings in the state of Texas, it provides you with a link to due process mediators or officers in the state of Texas and it also gives a link to a page of frequently asked question. This information could be very important to Parents of students with disabilities by giving them a way to find out information on due process hearings in the state of Texas.
The third item that I found is also from the Texas Education Agency. It is located at: http://ritter.tea.state.tx.us/special.ed/hearings/hodfaq.html The information that can be found on this page includes general information about due process hearings, what to do before due process hearings, what to do at the hearing and what to do after the hearing. It gives several links to more information about each of the steps that I listed above. The information under these links will help parents become prepared for the hearing and it will also help them better understand what to expect from the hearing. I really think every one should find this information for their parents to help them better understand their rights.
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Sarah,
ReplyDeleteI found it quite interesting that you refer to Due Process as an essential part of the Special Education process. Why do you feel this way? I agree its part of special education, but if services are provided with fidelity there is no need for Due Process. I know in my district we exhaust every option before we enter into a Due Process hearing. Rarely have I known a case where both the parents and the school district rush into a Due Process hearing. They are timely, stressful, and costly. I think that both sides involved would much rather solve their differences at an IEP meeting or through mediation. When it goes to Due Process, you are leaving the decision up to a judge that may have little to no experience or knowledge in special education. When that happens, everybody loses.
Due Process is essential for parents if the school has not provided their child with an appropriate education or if they feel that their child has not been recieving an appropriate education and they have not been able to make progress with the school district through other means of problem solving. It is vital because it protects the right of parents and students with disabilities if the school district is not doing it's job. It is very vital in my opinion. As an educator I believe that if there were no Due Process rights parents would be pushed completely out of their childs education. Not all schools do provide services with "fidelity" and I have seen this first hand. I am not saying rush into a due process hearing, I am saying if parents and school districts can't work out thier differences then parents do have the right to take action on behalf of their child. I think you misunderstood my point of view on this posting.
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