According to an article from K12 Dive, national trends in special education dispute resolution for the 2021-22 school year show a return to pre-pandemic activity as per data reported by the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education (CADRE), which is a federal technical assistance center that supports state and local efforts to prevent and resolve disputes between school systems and families of students with disabilities.
According to CADRE, data from the 2020-21 school year — when many school districts were in virtual or hybrid mode — did not align with previous years’ trends. For example, national data, excluding New York state, showed the number of due process complaints filed dropped 29% during the pandemic 2020-21 school year. In fact, CADRE data shows a 47% increase in written state complaints in 2021-22 over the previous year.
However, promising trends from the 2021-22 school year data include an increase in mediation requests and agreements reached at that voluntary stage, as well as a higher rate of agreements made during mandatory resolution periods.
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