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CALL TO ACTION FOR PENNSYLVANIA SPECIAL EDUCATION FAMILIES:

     The State of Pennsylvania has had "special conditions" placed on funding by the Federal Government due to the Pennsylvania Department of Education's not enforcing local districts into compliance and not enforcing compliance with IDEA. Previous sanctions placed against the Pennsylvania Department of Education, due to its "dismal" monitoring of school districts, resulted in threatened funding cuts by the Federal Government, Office of Special Education Programs. (OSEP). Project COPE parents in Pennsylvania are alleging that Pennsylvania's Bureau of Special Education, Division of Compliance, and Office for Dispute Resolution have resorted to "extreme" measures to ensure that no further "special" conditions for monitoring or funding will be placed upon Pennsylvania.

      Based on ongoing research of Project COPE, county-wide parent networking, comparative analyses between family hearing outcomes, and Division of Compliance investigation outcomes, there is substantive documentation supporting Project COPE's allegations of these "extreme" measures in the forms of coersion, intimidation, retaliation and other tactics utilized to manipulate hearing/appeal outcomes and compliance investigations to find "favorably" for school districts at all costs. The statistics are staggering, despite documentation of substantial procedural violations and blatant denial of FAPE by districts.

     Project COPE members are comprised of parents and children in Pennsylvania who are alleging abuses of power and/or violations of their due process rights by the Pennsylvania Department of Education, Bureau of Special Education Division of Compliance, Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network (PATTAN) and Office for Dispute Resolution (ODR). We are collecting data from families across the state of Pennsylvania interested in joining our class in support of these claims which include:

1. Alleged administrative and judicial misconduct and abuses of power by various hearing officers and appeals panel members in violation of the Pennsylvania Rules of Professional Conduct.

2. Allegations of documented conflicts of interest between hearing officers, Division of Compliance Investigators, school district administrators/attorneys

3. Allegations of documented prohibited ex-parte communications between Hearing Officers, State Education Agency staff, and school district administrators and attorneys.

4. Allegations of aberrant and inconsistent practices by certain Hearing Officer's in following procedurally mandated guidelines in accordance with the Hearing Officer Handbook.

5. Allegations of questionable methods for processing of due process hearing exhibits by ODR staff with respect to processing and forwarding the "complete hearing record and exhibits" to the respective appeals panel.

6. Allegations of documented violations by school districts which are acknowledged by some hearing officers and/or appeals panel members are routinely regarded as "harmless error". However, the slightest procedural infraction of the parents (especially those acting pro se at due process) are vigorously documented and cited by hearing officers and appeals panels with subsequent penalties, referencing Hearing Officer Handbook Regulations.

7. Alleged questionable training standards by (ODR) with respect to the hiring and training practices of "impartial" hearing officers

8. Allegations of questionable investigation standards and outcomes by Pennsylvania's Division of Compliance Investigators.

9. Allegations of ongoing violations of state and federally mandated 45-day time line for due process hearing timelines and decisions. Hearing Officer decisions are sometimes rendered 150-200+ days after start of the proceeding

10. Allegations of State Education Agency (SEA) not enforcing the Local Educational Agency's (LEA) compliance with IDEA, ADA/Section 504

11. Alleged professional Conflicts of Interest and prohibited co-affiliations between Hearing Officers, Appeals Panel Members, School District Attorneys, and School District Administrators in statewide professional organizations, alleged lobbying of congress to influence special education legislation constituting professional/personal conflicts of interest in violation of the PA Hearing Officer's Handbook Regulations, and the PA Rules of Administrative Practice.

12. Alleged FERPA violations blatantly ignored by certain hearing officers and appeals panel members.

13. Allegations of the lack of adequate monitoring, documenting and enforcing sanctions against school district's for non-compliance with IDEA, ADA, and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, 1972.

14. Allegations of "exclusion" of parents in the school district investigation complaint process and interviews by Bureau of Special Education Division of Compliance.

15. Allegations of the lack of sanctions or penalties against hearing officers by the Office for Dispute Resolution for continuous violations or non-compliance with the ODR Hearing Officer Handbook Rules and/or Pennsylvania Rules of Administrative Practice

          Pennsylvania Parents of Project COPE (Casualties of Public Education) have documented and collected irrefutable, substantive information supporting these allegations and want our collective voices heard. We also want to appeal to other Pennsylvania parents of special needs children who have been "victimized" by the Special Education systems in Pennsylvania to come forward with their stories or information of other families or friends who wish to share their experiences with Pennsylvania's "impartial" due process systems or Division of Compliance investigations. We are looking for families who have successfully negotiated settlements either through mediation or due process, only to later struggle or litigate further to have the agreements enforced. We also want to hear from families who were "encouraged" to withdraw their school district complaints or investigation requests in order to receive reimbursement of their legal fees or as part of "settlement" negotiations with the district.

         We are interested in your stories and are documenting this information for a planned call to action to address and hopefully remedy alleged abuses of power, judiciary/ethical misconduct, state or federal violations by the Pennsylvania Bureau of Special Education, Division of Compliance, Office for Dispute Resolution, Pennsylvania Training and Technical Assistance Network, as well as various Pennsylvania Hearing Officers and Appeals Panel Members regarding systemic non-compliance with regulations governing IDEA, ADA and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973.

          Project COPE (Casualties of Public Education) are coming together in a "public outcry" against the injustices and inequities faced by special needs children and parents in Pennsylvania against these "un" impartial systems that the Pennsylvania Department of Education claims to have put in place for the benefit of parents and children in Pennsylvania. Project COPE wants to assist parents and children in leveling the playing field against these injustices faced by parents and children in Pennsylvania in the public schools, as well as in the special education adjudicative systems.

         Sincerely,

          Christine A. Hesling - Founder & CEO, Project COPE (Casualties of Public Education)
          chesling@project-cope.org

          Nicole Cogdell, President
          ncogdell@project-cope.org

          Marialisa Shihadeh, Executive Director
          mshihadeh@project-cope.org

    "There can be no due process of law for the litigants, both private citizens and the United States Government, without the reality of fairness, and the system will not function effectively and efficiently without the public perception of fairness."

    Federal Administrative Law Judges Conference (FALJC), http://www.faljc.org/