OATH Update
We’re pleased to say Impartial Hearing Officers (IHOs) have been appointed to each of our cases for the 2022-2023 school year. Last year, in excess of 50% of our clients did not immediately receive a hearing officer. This year, that number has dropped precipitously to something in the area of 15%, and we are very encouraged by this.
This improvement is due in part to the Office of Administrative Trials and Hearings (OATH) taking over impartial hearings from the Department of Education.
This is the first year in which the cases have spent the entire process under OATH. For these cases, OATH is proving to be very thorough and competent. As I mentioned, every one of our own cases has been assigned an IHO — and every single one of those IHOs has responded over and above OATH’s minimum standards.
Settlement conferences, a new feature, are conducted by a different IHO than the one assigned to your case. Settlement offers are confidential, meaning they will not be admissible as evidence. Before settlement, the IHO will review the details of the case and discuss whether the parties can reach a full or partial settlement. Each party must have “individual possessing authority” to settle the matter. This indicates that the OATH is ready to settle, and it may actually happen at your hearing.
In the past, the statutory law required resolution meetings, but they proved to be problematic. The format of a resolution meeting only allows parents to dictate what they would need in order to send their child back to public school. Parents who have found private placements that are designed specifically for their child’s disability usually waive these meetings as a matter of course.
Our hopes were high for OATH; our experiences have been mixed — more to come on that score. Subscribe to our newsletter to stay up to date as we continue to assess how the switch to OATH is playing out.
Marc Gottlieb
Partner
195 Montague Street
14th Floor
Brooklyn Heights, NY, 11201
Marc@GottliebFirm.com
(646) 820-8506