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At the November 12, 2003, meeting
of the DC Board of Education’s Committee on Special Education, the
Director of Transformation for Special Education, Raymond Bryant,
announced that he had formed a task force charged with preparing proposed
changes in DCPS's due process hearings procedure. He further announced that
the task force would consist of the DC Appleseed Center, the law firm of
Piper and Rudnick, and other unspecified stakeholders. He did not
indicate how his selection was made. He did not disclose the criteria for
selecting stakeholders.
A due process hearing is an administrative hearing held to resolve disputes between parents and/or guardians and DCPS regarding special education. According parents due process in administrative hearings under the control of DCPS has been a recurrent issue. Shortly after Bryant arrived at DCPS last year, nearly the entire cadre of seasoned, independent, non-DCPS employee hearing officers was dismissed. They were replaced by hearing officers who, according to DCPS’s own testimony, are full-time DCPS employees. That, of course, violates federal law. Further, Bryant has announced plans to conduct training for those same replacement hearing officers. Even when a hearing officer is biased in favor of DCPS, DCPS refuses to allow a parent to have that hearing officer removed for cause from her case. Removal can be obtained only by asking that same biased hearing officer to remove himself for bias. That has become an ongoing problem for parents who are represented by attorneys in disfavor with Bryant. Bryant brought along with him from Maryland an outside contract attorney to represent DCPS in due process hearings, at a contracted rate of $6,250.00 for each day of hearings. In addition, Bryant announced and instituted a policy of marshaling DCPS resources against certain attorneys. The harm inflicted by this on innocent children and parents has been immeasurable. Less than a year ago, DCPS attempted to slip past the Board a revision of special education regulations that was unfair to parents and, in some instances, violated federal law. That was stopped. Bryant has now gone to the US Department of Education, complaining that I stopped DCPS from enacting the unfair regulations that he had advocated. And now Bryant is going to be allowed to be in charge of changes in due process hearing procedures? It is as though the visiting team brought its own referees on the team bus. |
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