Almost 7 million children aged 3 to 21 received special education services under Part B of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) in school year 2016-17. The Government Accountability Office (GAO) was asked to review parents' use of the Individuals with IDEA dispute resolution options. This report examines (1) how often IDEA…

Alternative Individualized Education Program (IEP) dispute resolution models should respond to limitations of current options. An experimental IEP dispute resolution program provides parents and schools with an evidence-supported neutral perspective on what is needed for free and appropriate education (FAPE) and least restrictive environment…

Of the three formal dispute resolution procedures provided by the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act of 2004(IDEA), due process hearings are the most costly in terms of time, fiscal resources, and impact on relationships between school personnel and parents. This study examined 258 due process hearings held over the past 8 years in…

Good mentoring of graduate students influences their perseverance and success to completion, whereas bad mentoring can result in negative outcomes, including delayed degree completion or non-completion. What the authors refer to as the gray zone is that which falls between good and bad mentoring. Examples are partial mentoring or changes in…

In this article, we tackle the disadvantaging conditions of zero tolerance policies in school settings and advocate using an alternative approach--critical restorative justice through peacemaking circles--to nurture resilience and open opportunity at the school level. In the process, this article builds on theory and qualitative research and…

Three- and 4-year-old children were asked to judge which of a set of 3 lines was the longest, both independently and in the face of an inaccurate consensus among adult informants. Children were invariably accurate when making independent judgments but sometimes deferred to the inaccurate consensus. Nevertheless, the deference displayed by both age…

Mediation was required by the Individuals With Disabilities Education (IDEA) 1997, and resolution sessions were added to the IDEA 2004. This study examines the perceptions of 260 special education directors in Georgia, Massachusetts, Washington, and Wisconsin to determine their perceptions regarding alternative dispute resolutions in which they…

McCrary's work in the late 1990s suggested that superheroes influence children's development of moral values. Similarly, Bauer and Dettore advocated adults' and educators' monitoring of children's superhero play to help children foster cooperation and conflict resolution skills. The purpose of this study was to explore the relationship between…

This report discusses findings of a study that investigated the resolution of disputes in the field of special education. Information was collected from ten states (Alabama, California, Illinois, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Virginia, Washington, and Wyoming) on their current dispute resolution systems and from two additional states…