Opinion ID: 2598222
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: Complaints for due process hearings

Text: The IDEA provides that any parent who believes that a school has misidentified, misevaluated, improperly placed, or otherwise denied a free and appropriate public education to a qualifying child has a right to file a complaint for an impartial due process hearing. [3] These hearings are designed to focus on disputes concerning discrete decisions involving specific children and the children's parents; they are formal adjudicatory proceedings in which parents and children have the rights to counsel, to present evidence, and to call, confront, and compel the attendance of witnesses. [4] Due process hearings are also required to be expedited: once a parent asks for a hearing, a hearing officer has only forty-five days in which to issue a final, written decision. [5] The IDEA gives states the option of specifying whether due process hearings are the responsibility of local school systems or the state system. [6] Alaska has chosen to require complaints for due process hearings to be made to the local district from which the complaint arises. [7]