Board of Regents to consider change in statute of limitations

Presently, Federal law applies a two-year statute of limitation, except where the state prescribes an explicit time limitation for requesting a hearing. At its Monday meeting, the NYS Board of Regents will consider a State Ed proposal to shorten the statute of limitation. State Ed seeks to “[a]mend Education law to provide that a due process hearing must be requested within one year of the date the parent or district had knowledge of the issue, with exceptions as required by federal law and with an exception that for parents seeking tuition reimbursement, such request must be made within 180 days of the date the parent placed his/her child in the private school.” State Ed reasons that “[a] statute of limitations of more than one year to request an impartial hearing is programmatically inappropriate since IEPs are developed for one year. IDEA due process procedures should be designed to resolve disputes within one year so that any resulting changes needed to assure that the student receives a free appropriate public education are made in time to benefit the student.” I’m sure that State Ed also reasons that shortening the statute of limitations on reimbursement claims would be a much easier way to nip in the bud the financial cost of private school reimbursement, rather than focusing on the rampant problems in school districts, NYC in particular, which problems have given rise to these reimbursement claims.

See here for a list of the many items that the Board of Regents will be considering changing on Monday. Items include CSE composition, evaluation of preschoolers, 3602-c services and notice timelines. Note also that some of these items would require legislative change. The proposed change to the statute of limitations is one of the items that would require legislative action.

Update (3/7/11): Due to inclement weather, the Board of Regents postponed discussion of the above items until its April meeting.

Amendments to New York State Special Education Regulations

The following are the most significant of the amendments to the New York State special education regulations, effective December 8, 2010. For full text of the amendments, see here.

1. Part 200.13 previously required that “Instructional services shall be provided to meet the individual language needs of a student with autism for a minimum of 30 minutes daily in groups not to exceed two, or 60 minutes daily in groups not to exceed six.” It is amended to now require that “Instructional services shall be provided to meet the individual language needs of a student with autism.”
2. Part 200.6 has eliminated the minimum level of speech services for students with disabilities determined to need speech and language services. Previously, there was a 2x30 per week minimum requirement.
3. Part 200.6 has been amended to allow for more than 12 students with disabilities in an integrated co-taught class.

New York State Board of Regents approves controversial proposals

The New York State Board of Regents supported the following special education cost containment proposals and directed State Education Department (SED) staff to develop proposed regulatory language that would:
● Authorize school districts to add up to two additional students to integrated co-teaching classes, upon documented educational justification;
● Repeal the minimum service delivery requirements for speech and language; and
● Repeal the requirement that each student with autism receive instructional services to meet his/her individual language needs at a minimum of 30 minutes daily in groups not to exceed two, or 60 minutes daily in groups not to exceed six.

In addition, the Regents also endorsed the following legislative proposals:
● Establish a one-year statute of limitations to request an impartial hearing and that requests for tuition reimbursement for unilateral parent placements in private schools be presented not more than 180 days from the placement by the parent; and
● Repeal the authority of the Commissioner to appoint students to State-supported schools

The Regents did not support legislative action that would repeal the requirement for dissemination of copies of students’ individualized education programs (IEPs) to each regular education teacher, special education teacher, related service provider and other service provider who is responsible for the implementation of the IEP. Rather, the Regents asked SED staff to provide more information on the number of districts currently providing electronic access to IEPs rather than providing paper copies.

For more information, the complete Regents discussion item can be found at:
http://www.regents.nysed.gov/meetings/2010Meetings/June2010/0610vesidd2.htm

New York State Ed. continues assault on rights

State Ed. has proposed certain “cost containment” statutory and regulatory changes impacting upon the rights of students with disabilities and their parents. The Board of Regents will consider these changes at their next meeting which is scheduled for June 21st. The memo from State Ed to the Board of Regents can be found here. Proposed changes include shortening the statute of limitations from 2 years to 1 year in most circumstances and 6 months for reimbursement claims. State Ed would also remove that requirement that all personnel working with a child be provided with that child’s IEP. There are a number of other proposed changes. I suggest reading the memo and submitting comments to the Board of Regents at this address.