Strategies to Avoid Due Process Hearings

by Susan Kabot

Reprinted with permission from CEC Today, February/March 2003, Volume 9, Number 6.

Any parent, teacher, or school administrator who has participated in a due process proceeding knows how time consuming, expensive, and emotionally draining it is. At the end of the process, relationships are often destroyed and no one is satisfied with the outcome. Many of the issues addressed in due process proceedings can be solved in other less confrontational or stressful ways.

Following are a variety of ways that teachers and other school district personnel can ensure their students receive an appropriate educational program and that relationships with families remain cordial and collaborative.

Know Each of Your Students
It is often helpful to talk to or meet with other professionals in the school and/or community to look at the student through a multi-disciplinary lens. Use this information to develop an instructional program that meets each student's needs. Remember to read and refer to each child's IEP when you first meet the student. Make sure that others who will teach the child, including paraprofessionals, related service personnel, and general education teachers, all read and have access to the IEP too.

Make Sure the IEP Fits the Child
Teachers often inherit an IEP that another professional has developed for a variety of reasons, including school reassignment, family relocation, or a teacher leaving his or her job. As a teacher, you are responsible for implementing the IEP. If you don't think the present level of performance describes the child, the goals and objectives meet his or her needs, or that the placement is not the best place to deliver the child's program, you should ask for an interim IEP meeting to review and revise the IEP.

Define the Instructional Program You Will Develop to Implement the IEP
A teacher inspires confidence when she or he can clearly describe the plan for implementing a student's IEP. What curriculum frameworks do you have available, and which will you use to teach a particular child? What
teaching strategies and techniques meet this child's learning style? Do you have the materials you need in your classroom, and does your daily schedule include a variety of activities in which to embed the instruction?

Organize Your Classroom Environment to Meet Students’ Needs
Organizing the physical environment, developing a schedule for each student embedded in a class schedule, and allocating staff to student groups help insure that the IEP is implemented. If a child is to meet a goal of participating in small group activities, his schedule must reflect that, and there must be an instructional person assigned to that group. Having a written schedule for both the student and staff helps you explain how you are meeting a student's need for staff/student ratios throughout the day.

Develop a Professional Development Portfolio
Often, educators do not do a good enough job of selling themselves as professionals. Keeping a record of professional development activities you've participated in, at both the pre-service and in-service level, will help you gain respect. If one of your student's IEP states that the teacher has particular training, make sure you receive that training. Include in your portfolio professional memberships in organizations like CEC and any
journals you receive and read on a regular basis.

Use Efficient and Manageable Data Collection Procedures
It is imperative that you collect data regarding your students’ performance. Data is often useful in designing and problem solving when a child is not making progress. It is also crucial to showing that a child is making progress towards meeting his or her IEP goals.

There are many methods to collect data and a multitude of forms developed on which to record data. Find the format that you are comfortable with, and plan how often you will collect data. The frequency with which you need to collect data depends on your students’ learning rate and characteristics.

Maintain Communication between Home and School
Develop and maintain a system of communication that meets the needs of your students, their families, and you. Communicating about everyday performance and events makes it easier to share information when things are not going well. The frequency and format of the communication is not as important as its predictability. Remember to share the positives and not just contact families with problems. Learn how to communicate with families from diverse cultural backgrounds.

Develop Your Communication Skills
Listening effectively is as important as expressing your ideas and opinions clearly. Remember not to use jargon, acronyms, and technical terms. Respond to family concerns and feelings, not just the words they are using. Learn to be comfortable as a professional who admits when he or she doesn't have an answer and offer to find the information.

Be Flexible in Solving Problems
It is easy for teachers and other school personnel to fall into the, "We don't do it that way" or "It would cost too much" or " Children with a certain disability receive a certain level of services." There is usually more than one way to solve a problem, and there is often room for each side to look at an issue from other perspectives and find the common ground. If both sides remain open to further communication, problem solving, and suggestions by outside sources, it is often possible to avoid due process. When either the family or school personnel become rigid, that possibility is gone.

If You Can't Implement the IEP, Inform Your Supervisor
Sometimes, teachers and related service personnel can't properly implement the IEP. It may be that you have not received defined training, the child is not able to progress with the staff levels available, the necessary inclusion hours are not being provided, or a child needs different curricula than what is ordinarily being used in the district. Let your supervisor know when you need additional support, materials, or assistance to implement each student's program.

It may not always be possible to prevent due process proceedings, but, often, good communication skills, flexible problem solving, and organized instructional planning processes allow families and schools to work together in a more positive, pro-active manner.

Susan Kabot is director of The Autism Consortium at Nova Southeastern University in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. She is a member CEC Chapter #121.

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