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Home > Mediation > We Are Going to Mediation - Do We Need an Attorney? |
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IDEA Encourages Mediation When Congress reauthorized the IDEA in 1997, they expressed concerns about the adversarial experiences parents and schools reported when they had disputes:
We are ..."discouraged to hear that many parents, teachers, and school officials find that current IDEA provisions encourage an adversarial, rather than a cooperative, atmosphere ..." Congress added mediation to the law and encouraged parents and schools to use mediation to resolve disputes. Mediation is a confidential process that allows parties to resolve disputes without resorting to a due process hearing.
Paper Trails When you have a dispute with the school, you need to have independent support of your position (independent of what you remember).
For example, after an IEP meeting, write a polite letter thanking the team for the meeting. Include your understanding about what the school agreed or refused to provide, like this:
"My
understanding of the services that my daughter will receive is XX, YY, but not ZZ."
"We advised the IEP team that we were spending two or three hours a night in tutoring since she was in second grade."
"When we asked the team for more help, Ms. Smith said that our daughter would have to flounder before the school would provide any help. We explained that our daugher would be floundering now if we weren'’t providing so much help at home." If questions come up about whether the school was aware of the problem, your letters are evidence that the problems are longstanding and that you have been trying to work cooperatively with the school. Our book, From Emotions
to Advocacy, teaches you how to create paper trails, write effective letters, and prepare for meetings. Attorneys in Mediation You said you contacted an attorney who suggested that it wasn't necessary to bring an attorney to the mediation. The school plans to send an attorney.
Evaluations and Letters Yes, definitely bring your evaluations and letters. Make a short list of what you
want for your daughter and use the experts' letters and reports to support your requests. How Can You Prepare? You asked about other steps you can take to prepare for the mediation.
Getting to Yes Go to your library or bookstore and pick up a copy of Getting to Yes by Roger Fisher. Getting to Yesis based on research about how to resolve conflict. This book will help you understand the mediation/negotiation process so you can participate effectively.
Getting to Yes is a great book - and it's a small book - probably no more than 100 pages long. A Word or Two of Wisdom. Assume you resolve your current problem. History repeats itself.
Copyright © 1998-2024, Peter W. D. Wright and Pamela Darr
Wright. All rights reserved.
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