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CADRE KEEPS STAKING OUT COMMON GROUND FOR SPECIAL ED PARENTS, SCHOOLS

November 14, 1999

With what some may call the understatement of the year, the Consortium for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education introduced a new document Sunday to provide guidance for parents and schools trying to agree on appropriate services for children with disabilities. "School systems and families sometimes have different perspectives about the education of children with disabilities," the federally funded mediation group says in its new paper, "Keys to Access: Encouraging the Use of Mediation by Families from Diverse Backgrounds."

CADRE produced the new document to make the concept of mediation less confusing for families that could see some benefit from it. Although the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act requires schools to provide "free appropriate public education" for all students with disabilities, many families are not aware that mediation is often an efficient, cost-effective way of getting access to that education, CADRE says. Mediation is particularly unfamiliar to families with limited English proficiency, who are not familiar with mainstream American culture or who are from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds, the group says.

"If school systems are going to meet the increasing challenge to implement culturally competent systems of services, they must include collaborative dispute resolution strategies that respect diverse methods of handling conflicts," CADRE says. "In particular, the goal must be to provide the type of mediation services which will be truly acceptable to all people and, therefore, accessible."

"Keys to Access" explains what the law says and how the process of mediation works. In addition, CADRE provides recommendations for school personnel, early intervention service providers, mediation providers and families to follow to facilitate a collaborative approach to serving the student. The document also includes a list of resources to help people on all sides of the issue learn more about cultural differences and find training and program design assistance from experts.

"The results of these collaborative partnerships may be reflected in improved programs for children with disabilities," CADRE says.8