A child-centered approach eases special ed disputes

A “child-centered response” to complaints from parents can greatly reduce school district involvement in special education disputes, speakers at a Saturday workshop said.

Thomas Dickson, a consultant with the Child-Centered Resolutions Project (CCRP), and David Rostetter, president of Education Policy Solutions Ltd., described the concept at the session and said the existing mechanisms for resolving special education disputes are fatally flawed.

According to the speakers, school officials and parents can either engage in a quick and cheap process of mediation or settlement negotiation—a process that holds little promise of actually resolving the dispute between the parties—or fight a costly legal battle.

The CCR Project offers a better alternative based on a rigorous, analytical process and a neutral perspective. Both parents and school personnel are fully engaged in the process—not in determining who is right and who is wrong—but in evaluating appropriate educational programs for the child.

Dickson and Rostetter said the project promotes trust by relying on experts agreeable to both parties. The expert then identifies a child’s educational needs and the capacity of particular interventions to address those needs.

A fundamental tenet of the CCR Project is transparent and mutual access. Unlike school-retained experts or evaluators, CCR Project experts are given access to parents, private experts, and private service providers. CCR Project experts may observe classrooms and interview teachers and evaluators.

Unlike any other dispute resolution mechanism, the CCR Project creates the conditions necessary for the parties to agree substantively on what is needed for the child’s education, while at the same time providing significant incentives for avoiding litigation.