Avoid Special
Education Complaints
by Ron Greiner, Coordinator,
Policy, Planning, and Compliance, MDE, Office of Special Education
and Early Intervention Services
Every year, the
Michigan Department of Education (MDE), Office of Special Education
and Early Intervention Services (OSE/EIS), and intermediate
school districts (ISDs) investigate a number of formal complaints
about the experiences, training, or conduct of school district
and public school academy (PSA) employees who work with children
with disabilities.
Complaints of this kind may target:
- Administrators (general or special education).
- Special education teachers.
- Special education related service providers.
- Special education paraprofessionals.
Schools can help to reduce the number of these types of complaints
in several ways. First, districts should review their personnel
procedures and make sure they:
- Carefully screen employee credentials and identify the roles
that each employee can fulfill.
- Identify when employee credentials expire and/or must be
renewed.
- Establish processes to inform district staff when their credentials
must be updated, how to update them, and that they must maintain
their credentials in order to stay employed.
- Annually review each staff member’s credential status.
- Annually monitor each staff member’s assignments.
Second, when an individualized education program (IEP) is completed,
the district should verify that the assigned staff who will work
with the student have the credentials, qualifications, and skills
to implement the IEP.
Third, educators should consider that parents are concerned about
the quality of the relationships between their children and the
people who work with them. For that reason, districts will want
to insure that they:
- Provide ample opportunities for parents to interact with and
become acquainted with the adults in their children’s lives.
- Work closely with parents to involve and update them about
any unusual incidents.
- Open communication channels so parents can raise issues and
concerns.
- Make sure both district personnel and parents understand
how allegations are handled at the district, ISD, and state
levels.
- Provide information about the procedures for filing complaints,
the process by which complaints are investigated, and what actions
parents can take when they are not satisfied with the outcomes
of an investigation.
Many formal complaints can be avoided when lines of communication
between parents and the school district are open and there is
a constructive way to work through conflicts.
Ron Greiner is a coordinator
for Policy, Planning, and Compliance in the Michigan
Department of Education (MDE), Office of Special Education and
Early Intervention Services (OSE/EIS). For more information,
contact him at OSE/EIS, P.O. Box 30008, Lansing, MI 48909; (517)
335-0461; Fax (517) 373-7504; e-mail: GreinerR@michigan.gov.
Editor’s Note: This article was excerpted
from FOCUS
on Results. (GATA 03-03). FOCUS on Results is a new series
of guidance and technical assistance documents launched this year
by the Office of Special Education and Early Intervention Services
(OSE/EIS).
The new FOCUS on Results series will keep
stakeholders up to date on: changes in rules and regulations;
dispute resolution; individualized education programs (IEPs) and
individualized family service plans (IFSPs); assessment, accommodations,
and alternate assessment; data and focused monitoring; and other
relevant topics. FOCUS on Results is scheduled to appear at least
three times a year.
The first three documents, addressing dispute
resolution, were mailed to special education stakeholders in July
2003. You can find them, along with additional resources, at the
MDE Web site, www.michigan.gov/mde
or the Center for Educational Networking (CEN) Web site, www.cenmi.org.
If you don’t have access to the Web, call CEN at (800) 593-9146
ext. 20 and ask for copies of FOCUS on Results, Dispute Resolution.
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