State Performance Plan 2005-2012 - Part B - Arkansas Department Of Education (Page 232 of 277) in pdf

State Performance Plan 2005-2012 - Part B - Arkansas Department Of Education Page 232

Arkansas Department of Education Special Education Unit

Part B State Performance Plan

In the case of a complaint, when violations are found and corrective actions are ordered by a hearing officer

or the ADE’s Commissioner, the DRS monitors and enforces compliance by the public agency. The DRS

works collaboratively with the public agency in achieving compliance, but the DRS has the duty to

recommend to the Associate Director the withholding of funds from a public agency that is unable or

unwilling to achieve compliance within a reasonable period, subject to notice and opportunity for a hearing

on the issue of withholding of funds.

Compliance issues discovered during mediation and/or complaint investigations that are not part of the

original complaint or mediation request are referred to the appropriate ADE-SEU Area Supervisor for

resolution.

The DRS has developed internal policies to ensure that due process hearing requests are assigned

immediately to hearing officers on a rotational basis. In addition, internal policies, procedures, and practices

were developed and implemented to ensure that complaint investigation reports were administratively

complete within the required timeline.

The ADE-SEU established the Arkansas Special Education Mediation Project, which began providing

mediation services to parents of students with disabilities and local education agencies and education service

cooperatives in August 2003. The Project is sponsored and funded by the Special Education Unit and is

supervised by the U.A.L.R. Bowen School of Law in Little Rock. The Project makes mediation services

available to resolve disputes involving the identification, evaluation, educational placement, and provision

of a free appropriate public education to students with disabilities as defined by the IDEA. Mediation

services are free of charge to parents of students with disabilities and schools/co-ops. The pre-filing

mediation program is designed to resolve disputes before a formal request is made for a due process hearing

or a complaint investigation. Mediation services are intended to reduce costs and improve relations between

parents of children with disabilities and schools/co-ops. The availability and use of this process does not

obstruct access to the due process hearings or complaint systems.

Monitoring/Program Effectiveness and Non-Traditional Programs: While the M/PE Section is directly

responsible for the oversight of the special education programs in the state’s public schools and co-ops, the

M/PE Section, in conjunction with the ADE-SEU’s Non-Traditional Section, also oversees the

implementation of special education programs in the State’s open-enrollment charter schools, State-operated

and State-supported facilities and institutions, Juvenile Detention Facilities and DHS-Division of Youth

Services (DYS) juvenile treatment centers, and private agencies and residential sites located throughout the

state.

Additionally, the M/PE Section personnel work closely with the Grants/Data Management Section and the

Arkansas IDEA Data & Research Office in carrying out the M/PE Section’s overall supervision of the

provision of special education and related services. Monitoring activities often raise issues in the area of

Child Count, requiring follow-up child count audits; provision of qualified providers; provision of adequate

supplies and materials; adequacy of facilities and numerous other issues dealing with the expenditure of

state and federal funds for provision of special education and related services.

Because of the M/PE Section’s role in overseeing the provision of special education and related services to

children with disabilities throughout the state in a variety of settings, monitoring activities often identify

personnel and staff development issues that must be coordinated with the Administrator of the State

Program Development Section that oversees the State’s personnel development activities. By working in

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State Performance Plan 2005-2012 - Part B - Arkansas Department Of Education Page 232

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