Meeting of the Board of Regents | March 2008

Summary

Issue for Discussion

              Should the Board of Regents support the Department's proposal for an administrative dispute resolution mechanism regarding claims for reimbursement of costs for special education provided to a nonresident student with a disability, who is parentally placed in a nonpublic school located in a school district other than the school district in which the student legally resides?

Reason for Consideration

              Compliance with State statute.

Proposed Handling

              The proposed policy is before the Committee for discussion.  

Procedural History

Section 4 of Chapter 378 of the Laws of 2007 amended subdivision 7 of section 3602-c of the Education Law, relating to the provision of special education services to parentally placed nonpublic school students.  Section 3602-c, consistent with the federal requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), requires the school district where a nonpublic school is located (school district of location) to be the provider of special education services to a student with a disability.  Subdivision 7 of section 3602-c entitles the school district of location to recover costs of special education services, costs of individual evaluations provided for the student and costs of committee on special education (CSE) administration directly from the district of residence of the student (district where the student resides).  The amount charged by the school district of location for services, evaluation and CSE administrative costs cannot exceed the actual cost to the school district of location, after deducting any costs paid with federal or State funds.  The law further requires the Commissioner to adopt regulations prescribing a dispute resolution mechanism that will be available to a school district of residence where such district disagrees with the amount of the costs charged by the school district of location.

Background Information

              The Commissioner must, to meet the statutory requirement in Chapter 378 of the Laws of 2007, adopt regulations prescribing a dispute resolution mechanism that will be available to a school district of residence where such district disagrees with the amount of the costs charged by the school district of location.   Department staff have been meeting regularly regarding this issue in an effort to propose a process that would be minimally burdensome, timely and fair for school districts.  In addition, the proposed mechanism must be efficient and doable within our current staff resources since additional resources were not allocated to the Department to carry out the claim dispute process.   In this process we have considered various dispute resolution processes, including a binding arbitration process. 

              The Department is recommending establishing an administrative review mechanism by the Commissioner when the school district of residence disputes the amount of the claim by the district of location.  This administrative review would include a determination of whether the claimed costs were attributable to the non-resident student and whether such student resided in the school district of residence from which recovery is sought.  

Recommendations

              It is recommended that the Board of Regents support the development of regulations implementing Section 4 of Chapter 378 of the Laws of 2007 amended subdivision 7 of section 3602-c of the Education Law, relating to the provision of special education services to parentally placed nonpublic school students. 

Timetable for Implementation

              Proposed regulations would be submitted for discussion in May with action scheduled in June in order to ensure consistency of the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education with Chapter 378 of the Laws of 2007.