The Importance and Power of State Complaints
What is Procedural Law?
There are two types of law in special education: procedural law and substantive law. Procedural law is descriptive and establishes a set of mandatory procedures all schools and districts must follow in delivering special education to students. Substantive law includes entitlements stated as facts within the IDEA. Substantive law is subject to debate because attorneys can debate the substance of a case and the interpretation of the law. However, procedural law is less subject to debate because it describes the types of procedures schools and districts are required to perform.
How Are Schools Held Accountable for Compliance with Procedural Law?
The IDEA has established an accountability system for school compliance with procedural law. This system establishes a Procedural Safeguards Unit at the State Department of Education. The procedural safeguards unit of the state department of education is responsible for holding schools accountable for compliance with procedural law by establishing a system where by parents or agencies can file complaints against schools or school districts alleging violations of special education procedural law. The state has the power to investigate schools and order corrective actions for schools who violate procedural law in delivering special education to a student.
The State Complaint Process:
State Complaints produce investigations of the alleged violations. These investigations are carried out by state department of education procedural compliance investigators. Investigations include reviewing the evidence parents or other agencies submit with their complaint, interviewing school personnel, and examining school documents. After a review of evidence from parents and schools, investigators make decisions about the validity of the complaint allegations. Those allegations that are substantiated, when the schools are found out of compliance, produce corrective actions. A corrective action is an action a school is required to perform in order to correct the problem created by procedural non-compliance.
Harnessing the Power of State Complaints
A transformation in the delivery of special education in public schools begins with parent involvement in accountability. Parents can increase school accountability for procedural compliance by submitting state complaints when schools fail to comply with procedural law. The state is only aware of school and district procedural non-compliance when parents and agencies file state complaints. When parents and agencies do not file complaints, the state has no way of knowing the extent to which a school district or individual school is out of compliance with state and federal law. If parents were to file a state complaint in each instance of procedural violation, the state would be able to see the full extent of procedural non-compliance in the delivery of special education. More importantly, if parents within the same school and same district are willing to report all instances of procedural non-compliance, the state will be able to identify systemic non-compliance. Systemic non-compliance is a system wide procedural violation practice in one or a few consistent areas of procedural law. Systemic non-compliance is like school or district habits of not complying with procedural law in certain aspects of delivering special education. Again, these patterns are not visible to states unless parents and agencies file complaints.
Access Center for Education Wants to Help Parents File State Complaints
State complaints require a written narrative of events and evidence. Most parents do not have the time, energy, and knowledge of procedural law to identify violations and file state complaints. ACE is offering to both assist parents in the process of writing and submitting state complaints and for procedural non-compliance allegations of more than two people in a single school, ACE will write the complaint and file the appropriate documents for parents.
How to know if the school has committed a procedural violation in delivering special education to your child:
- First, a parent would need to know what the procedural laws are in their school district. In order to know what many of the procedural laws are in your school district, read the parent rights given to you at your child's IEP meeting.
- Second, pay attention to your right to Prior Written Notice. Prior Written Notice is a procedural law that requires the school to respond to all parent requests for specific placements, services, accommodations, modifications and other types of program requests made for a child by writing parents a letter, within ten days, explaining what factors the school considered in the decision for or against the parent's request. The specific law states:
20 U.S.C. 1415 (c)(1) Content of Prior Written Notice.
The notice required by subsection (b)(3) shall include -
- (A) a description of the action proposed or refused by the agency;
- (B) an explanation of why the agency proposes or refuses to take the action and a description of each evaluation procedure, assessment, record, or report the agency used as a basis for the proposed or refused action;
- (C) a statement that the parents of a child with a disability have protection under the procedural safeguards of this part and, if this notice is not an initial referral for evaluation, the means by which a copy of a description of the procedural safeguards can be obtained;
- (D) sources for parents to contact to obtain assistance in understanding the provisions of this part;
- (E) a description of other options considered by the IEP Team and the reason why those options were rejected; and
- (F) a description of the factors that are relevant to the agency's proposal or refusal.
If you have made requests for your child during an IEP meeting or in a letter to the school and have not received Prior Written Notice, contact ACE and we will help you file a state complaint for this procedural violation. If two or more parents within one school have not been provided Prior Written Notice, ACE will file the complaint for the group of parents. Since Our Founding, Almost Every Case ACE Advocates Have Worked On Has Included Parent Requests But Not Included Prior Written Notice.
- Third, if you want to discuss your experience with the IEP process to see if you have experienced procedural violations, contact ACE and we will assess your situation and identify areas of possible violation
Contact Us
(949) 370-1186