Amended Hearing Dismissed
The IDEA Impartial Hearing Request That Never Gets a Hearing
Amended Hearing Request - Get Diagnostic Results
Hawaii public schools use the i-Ready Diagnostic product by Curriculum Associates to assess student ability in Math and Reading approximately 3 times per year. Results are computer-tabulated and available immediately upon completion. Parent often had to wait weeks to get the results in spite of numerous requests for the assessment data.
The parent filed a request for a public, impartial due process hearing to address this issue. The Hearings Officer dismissed the request. All the documentation is below, but we're still not sure how what happened was allowed to happen.
First, the parent files a simple request for remedy, i.e., she will receive the full diagnostic reports within 2 working days after the student completes them. She describes the reason this is needed; the school has deliberately withheld these reports for weeks at a time. However, the Hearings Officer inexplicably strips that justification from the request without the parent's consent in the Third and Fourth Amended Prehearing Orders. The Department of Education moves to dismiss because by the time the hearing rolls around (June 18, 2020) the parent had received the diagnostic results for the previous school year -- but not until months after the original hearing request had been filed!
Parent objects to the motion to dismiss stating mootness doctrine doesn't apply ( Daniel R.R. v. State Bd. of Educ), and 34 C.F.R 300.613(a) giving parents the right to inspect educational records without unnecessary delay. The Hearings Officer grants the DOE motion, and dismisses the case anyway claiming in pre-trial hearing on this motion that she can't compel the DOE to do something in the future. Hearings Officer never enters Parent's objections to respondent's motion to dismiss into official record of this hearing. (Transcript of short hearing on 18-June-2020 is at the end of this page.)
Seriously? Dismissed? What just happened? Ol'-fashioned Hawaii justice, I guess.
Parent Waits Weeks for Test Results in SY 2019-2020
The parent is not respected as an equal IEP Team member having had to wait weeks and make numerous requests to receive the full diagnostic reports after each assessment period. That's an average of 4 weeks of school just waiting to get results available on test completion date.
Average # Days Waiting: 19 (work days); 34 (calendar days)
These are computerized assessments. The results are available immediately to school personnel upon student's completion of the test.
2020-06-10-Petitioners-Evidence-and-WitnessList-original
This is the original Evidence and Witness List submitted by Petitioner.
Hearings Officer deleted 15 pages of Petitioner's evidence in court document (following document).
2020-06-10-Petitioners-Witness-and-Exhibit-List
This is the 3-page document marked as "received" by Hearings Officer with 15 pages of Petitioner's evidence deleted (previous document).
2020-06-15-Respondents-Motion-to-Dismiss-Excerpt
The complete document with 87 pages of i-Ready reports follows this document.
2020-06-15-Respondents-Motion-to-Dismiss - File Download
This is the complete document of the excerpted document above and includes 87 pages of i-Ready test results.
2020-06-15-Respondents-Motion-to-Dismiss (pdf)
Download