June 13, 2022, Update: Transcripts for due process days March 25th, 28th, 29th, and 30th, 2022, were added.
Thank you to two Chesterfield County, Virginia, parents for sharing their due process experiences and associated documents.
You’ll find the hearing transcripts at the end of this article. In the coming weeks, subpoenas, motions, and other documents will be added, providing readers an example of how due process hearings play out record by record.
This post features quotes, facts, and documents related to a recent due process hearing at which Dottie Skrincosky testified.
The hearing focused on, among other things, whether the program “Just Words” is appropriate for a student with Dyslexia.
At the time the parent filed for due process, Dottie was a curriculum specialist on staff with FCPS.
Thank you to everyone who shared and who reached out to me about the recent article “Second Virginia Hearing Officer Rules Reading Program Inappropriate for Student with Dyslexia”.
Today’s article shares more information about how that hearing played out, starting with the opening remarks presented by Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) counsel John Cafferky of Blankingship & Keith.
John presented his opening statements September 30, 2020, the first day of the due process hearing filed against FCPS.
Among other things, the hearing focused on whether the program “Just Words”, which FCPS proposed four school years in a row for the student who was the focus of the hearing, is appropriate for a student who has Dyslexia.
The hearing officer’s confirmation letter and her notice of pre-hearing letter fall on the benign side, with a few exceptions:
Metadata lists them as being associated with the U.S. Army.
They included incorrect information related to the parents.
They granted the LEA’s lawyer control of the conference platform.
Did state hearing officers receive training related to COVID and/or compensatory or “recovery” services?
Can a hearing officer force a family to meet in person, rather than virtually, even though the family and/or witnesses fall into the category of at-risk?
Can their training help parents prepare for due process?
These are just a few of the questions running through my mind when I submitted a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) for “all of the training materials that VDOE provides to hearing officers, as well anything else related to their training.”
Per §300.500, each state education agency (SEA) “must ensure that each public agency establishes, maintains, and implements procedural safeguards that meet the requirements of §§300.500 through 300.536”, which includes the due process timeline.
The timeline isn’t stated in one place, so the dates have been pulled from various sections, to provide a one-page rundown of deadlines that follow receipt of a due process complaint.
Due Process Hearings are supposed to be impartial—at least that’s what federal regulations state (See §300.511).
Does the Following Smell Neutral?
Virginia Hearing Officer Morgan Brooke-Devlin worked in a Blankingship & Keith office during a due process hearing for which she was assigned to be the hearing officer.
In addition to its lawyers being bcc’d on e-mails from teachers to students, Blankingship & Keith lawyers, among other things, represent school divisions during due process hearings.
When you file for due process, request that you and the school division, and/or its counsel, be made aware of the hearing officer assigned to the hearing at the same.
While there is a regulated timeline for the assignment of hearing officers to due process hearings (see below), there aren’t federal statutes or regulations stating that the parent and school division be made aware of the hearing officer assignment at the same time.
Earlier this month, Special Education Action reported that Blankingship & Keith lawyer Wesley Allen and/or both Allen and his colleague John Cafferky were bcc’d on about three dozen emails between a teacher and student, as well as on emails between Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) staff and the students’ parents, spanning a period of over a year.
In a recent meeting, the parents and their advocate brought the bccing practice to the attention of a due process hearing officer.
The hearing officer, in turn, asked Allen, who was attending the meeting, too:
“What’s your authority Mr. Allen?”
In part one of this series, I shared regulations related to filing for a due process hearing—and a bit of what happened after I filed a few years ago. Let’s continue the story.
Before I knew a hearing officer had been assigned, Blankingship & Keith, one of the law firms Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) taps into for due process hearings, started in with subpoenas.
I’d never been served—much less seen—a subpoena before those arrived.
With the help of Google and God, I got up to speed on subpoenas.
I learned they are kin to a child in a toy shop. Ask the kid what he or she wants, and the response will be everything in sight—plus the G.I. Joe with the Kung Fu grip (for those “Trading Places” fans).
I filed for Due Process August 26th of this year.
A due process hearing is an experience I could have done without, but I learned a tremendous amount—especially about hearings held via a virtual platform. I learned, too, more than I ever thought I needed to know about the transcripts related to the hearing (more on this later).
In the coming weeks, I’ll share slices of the hearing, from due process filing to final decision—which in this hearing included privacy breaches, perjury, technical glitches, an ADA complaint, denial of full access to the hearing, and denial of rights guaranteed under both federal and state regulations.
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