Connecticut hearing decisions 2016-present - who went, who won, who decided?

Post date: Aug 17, 2019 8:57:16 PM

Most families of children with disabilities will never have to file for a due process hearing.  And in the cases where parents do have to file, approximately 95% of those cases settle without going to a full-blown hearing.   So what happens with that other 5%?

As part of my summer project, I reviewed all the hearing decisions from 2016 through the present and organized them in a table, listing the district, prevailing party, hearing officer, parent attorney, school board attorney, etc.  

It's important to note that parents were represented by attorneys only 42% of the time.  School boards were represented by (taxpayer-funded) attorneys 100% of the time.  When parents were represented by attorneys, they prevailed 42% of the time at the hearing level.  When parents went to a hearing pro se (without an attorney), they prevailed only 4% of the time.

The table I prepared--sorted by school district--is below and can be downloaded.