New Paper available by CSEP Fellow Robert Ladenson

CSEP has recently made available two new publications by CSEP Fellow, Dr. Robert Ladenson under a Creative Commons license.

Critical Attributes of Good Process Decisions: A Guide for the Reflective Special Education Hearing Officer
Robert Ladenson

This monograph offers guidance for special education due process hearing officers in their efforts to write good due process decisions. It has four sections dealing respectively with:

- summary and explanation of factual findings;
- justification of legal conclusions;
- framing and determination of rulings and orders;
- writing choices in a special education due process opinion as to word selection, organizational structure, style, rhetoric, and tone.

The monograph is not intended to replace, but instead to supplement, the use of comprehensive summaries of substantive and procedural special education law. It aims to address an essential, yet presently unmet need – for an educational approach that helps special education due process hearing officers to focus critical reflection upon processes involved both in thinking through issues in a case and finding words to express the conclusions arrived at in writing a decision.