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Discrepancy between DOE's reported decrease in filings and OATH's increased caseload
2:18:15
ยท
134 sec
Council Member Restler questions the apparent discrepancy between DOE's reported 20% decrease in due process claim filings and OATH's increased caseload. Commissioner Rahman explains that the discrepancy is due to OATH taking on all new cases starting January 2024, whereas previously cases were split between OATH and independently contracted IHOs.
- DOE reported a 20% decrease in due process claim filings for the 2024-2025 school year.
- OATH's caseload actually increased from about 10,000 to nearly 14,000 in the first six months of the fiscal year.
- The increase in OATH's caseload is due to receiving all new cases rather than sharing them with contracted IHOs.
Lincoln Restler
2:18:15
So the thing that I'm struggling with and maybe I don't have a comprehensive enough understanding of the issue, but in last week's committee on the education, in last week's education committee's preliminary budget hearing, DOE spoke to a decrease in filings of due process claims by about 20% during the twenty four-twenty five school year, which I would have thought was reflected in these PMMR increases that are discordant with what you just testified to.
2:18:42
Can Oath verify this decrease and do you have any insight into why?
2:18:46
And shouldn't that have worked in the opposite direction of what you just spoke to?
Asim Rahman
2:18:49
I can explain.
2:18:50
I can't verify DOE's numbers, but if you were to tell me that DOE had an overall decrease in due process complaints, I can tell you why you don't see the commensurate decrease on the oath side.
2:19:00
So here's the reason.
2:19:02
It comes back to what I was explaining with Councilmember Brewer about us starting to take all new cases in January of twenty twenty four.
2:19:12
So when you compare the two school years, before January 2024, even if DOE had this many cases, they were farming them out to both Oath and the independently contracted IHOs.
2:19:27
So we were not seeing that full volume.
2:19:29
But come January 2024 we were now getting all the cases.
2:19:33
So while the greater pool was shrinking, the gross number of cases going to oath was actually going up.
2:19:43
Does that make sense?
Lincoln Restler
2:19:46
Think so.
Asim Rahman
2:19:47
We were not seeing if we were for the past several years seeing all of the cases and there were no contracted IHOs, then maybe there'd be more of a parallel trend line.
2:19:58
But we, looking at our gross numbers, we were not seeing all the cases.
2:20:03
So we saw a gross increase from what was x before.
2:20:06
I can tell you the fiscal year twenty twenty four Oath caseload total for the first six months of the fiscal year was just over 10,000.
2:20:17
And fiscal year twenty five, it was just over, it was under just under 14,000 because we were getting more of these cases.
Lincoln Restler
2:20:26
Okay.
Asim Rahman
2:20:26
It all goes to how DOE farms them out.