Relevant New York State Regulation(s):
- 8 § NYCRR Part 200.5 (j)(3)
The Regulations of the Commissioner of Education outline the school district’s responsibility to report data on impartial hearings to the State Education Department’s Office of Special Education. Any district that receives or initiates a request for an impartial hearing must immediately enter the request and record all relevant case information in the web-based Impartial Hearing Reporting System (IHRS). IHRS is a real time system, data entered by the district is immediately recorded and displayed for the purpose of daily monitoring of the timeliness of impartial hearing decisions. The school district’s timely data entry is key to accurate reporting.
Confidentiality is assured in IHRS because no student-specific identifying information is captured. IHRS does not record the name of the student, parents or attorneys involved in an impartial hearing case. A case number is assigned upon the school district’s entry of a record. This case number is used in all references to the case. In IHRS school districts have access to their own case information and Impartial Hearing Officers (IHO) have access to information in cases to which they are appointed.
Responsibilities for Data Reporting and Monitoring
School District Responsibilities
The school district is responsible for timely reporting of all dates and actions related to an impartial hearing in IHRS throughout the process, from receipt of request to closing the case. The district’s policies and procedures relative to impartial hearings and reporting should address each of the items below:
- Training for all district staff involved in the impartial hearing process (i.e. contacting the IHO, representing the district in the hearing, attending the hearing, entering hearing data to the IHRS etc.). Useful elements to include in the training program are:
- The Commissioner’s Regulations regarding impartial hearings (200.5) which are posted on the State Education Department (SED) website at: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/lawsregs/2001-2005-809.pdf
- Contents of SED’s guide to the “Impartial Hearing Process for Students with Disabilities.” This document is posted on the SED website at: http://www.p12.nysed.gov/specialed/publications/policy/ihprocessguide.htm.
- Contents of the IHRS Help File. This information is accessed by clicking on the Help icon located anywhere in the IHRS site.
- Emphasis on the timelines related to the request, appointment, hearing, extension and decision events of the process. To access this information:
- Click on the Help icon located anywhere in the IHRS site to access the online Help File;
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