Your guide to NYC's public proceedings.
Q&A
Overview of OATH's special education hearings division
2:11:43
ยท
4 min
Council Member Brewer inquires about the structure, efficiency, and policy implications of OATH's special education hearings division. Commissioner Rahman provides details on the division's operations, case handling, and improvements in processing time.
- The division has grown to include nearly 100 full-time independent hearing officers, 4 special education attorneys, and about 20 administrative staff members
- Average case length has improved from over 250 days to about 84 days, below the legal threshold of 105 days
- OATH does not engage in policy discussions regarding special education services, maintaining its role as an impartial tribunal
Gale A. Brewer
2:11:43
And then in terms of special education, that's something that I know you're dealing with more recently, and it's a big challenge in terms of the students and the families and so on.
2:11:54
So which, on the special education hearings division, which now handles all due process cases for students with IEPs and I and and individualized special education programs.
2:12:09
How is this hearings division structured?
2:12:12
I think the reason we're asking this question, and I think you know this, is the Carter cases are just blooming, blossoming, and costing.
2:12:20
And so we're trying to figure out how they can be not adjudicated for the right position and student placement, but then there's a cost factor too.
2:12:32
So I just wanna know a little bit more about that division.
Asim Rahman
2:12:34
Sure.
2:12:34
So the special education hearings division is one of our, as I mentioned, main adjudicatory or three adjudicatory divisions.
2:12:42
And it is led by a deputy commissioner.
2:12:45
It started up right when I got here.
2:12:47
So it started in early twenty twenty two by nature of the agreement between the city and the state in late twenty twenty one.
2:12:54
And it started with just a handful of people and it has grown significantly because of the need.
2:12:58
We now have close to 100 independent hearing officers working full time on staff.
2:13:04
We have four special education attorneys who are not hearing officers, but they assist with legal casework.
2:13:11
And we have about 19 to 20 administrative staff members.
2:13:14
And these are the individuals who are the muscle behind the cases.
2:13:18
They are the ones who line everything up and help with scheduling and support all of the independent hearing officers.
2:13:24
So that's the structure of the unit.
2:13:26
And the way that the process works is if a parent or family files a due process complaint with the DOE, the DOE then has to assign that out.
2:13:37
And before last January, January of '20 '20 '4, DOE would sign out those cases some to Oath and some to contracted IHOs not affiliated with Oath.
2:13:50
Starting with January of last year, '20 '20 '4, now all new cases come to Oath.
2:13:55
If the DOE gets a due process complaint, whatever that volume is, they assign it to Oath.
2:14:01
So we are dealing with that volume on our end.
Gale A. Brewer
2:14:04
What's the timing between when the family files and there's adjudication and hopefully?
2:14:09
Yes.
Asim Rahman
2:14:10
That's really the key question.
2:14:11
And that timing question is what got Oath involved in the first place.
2:14:14
Like to remind you Liz
Gale A. Brewer
2:14:16
Valadek is the good person behind all that.
Asim Rahman
2:14:18
I understand.
2:14:19
Before Oath got involved, average case length was over two fifty days before Oath got involved.
2:14:26
Now that we're involved, average case length is closer to eighty four days, which is below the legal threshold of one hundred and five days.
2:14:35
The legal deadline time is seventy five days.
2:14:39
Usually there's a thirty day extension that people ask for that's one hundred and five days.
2:14:42
So our average is below.
2:14:44
But as noted in the PMMR, we still have work to do.
2:14:47
About 80 plus percentage of our cases are closed within that legal deadline.
2:14:52
A tremendous improvement from what the world was like before Oath took these cases.
2:14:57
But of course, we want to get that number higher.
Gale A. Brewer
2:14:59
And are there new needs that are related to this division?
2:15:03
Are there other fundings needed?
2:15:05
Is there something I know you say it would be good to get that, well, 20% or whatever it is to be in the ballpark or even less than 84.
2:15:13
Are there new needs related to this division that you think should be evaluated?
Asim Rahman
2:15:18
These are things that we are regularly talking with OMB about.
2:15:22
They just recently approved posting and hiring nine additional IHOs, which we quickly filled, and they are just completed training a week or two ago.
2:15:32
So as demonstrate with the numbers to OMB what the need is, OMB's been in active discussions with us, and as I mentioned recently, approving bringing on new people.
Gale A. Brewer
2:15:43
More on the policy level, and then I'll stop, which is obviously you're dealing with adjudication.
2:15:47
That makes sense.
2:15:48
But there may be policy implications.
2:15:51
So do you also discuss that with the o board of elect board of education?
2:15:55
Because this Carter case is a big mess.
Asim Rahman
2:15:58
Yep.
Gale A. Brewer
2:15:58
Not your mess.
2:16:00
Yep.
2:16:00
The population, our city, education.
2:16:04
Is there, like, a policy implication that you would also discuss with the board with the Department of Education?
Asim Rahman
2:16:09
We do not.
2:16:10
While we do engage with the Department of Education on a number of fronts, mostly logistical and procedural, these broader issues about how to address services for students in New York who have special needs are policy decisions.
2:16:25
And it is not the purview, the appropriate place for the tribunal to get involved in those discussions.
Gale A. Brewer
2:16:30
Alright.
2:16:31
Thank you very much.
Asim Rahman
2:16:32
Thank you, council member.