SECTION 89.1183. Resolution Process

(a) Within 15 calendar days of receiving notice of the parent's request for a due process hearing, the public education agency must convene a resolution meeting with the parent and the relevant members of the admission, review, and dismissal committee who have specific knowledge of the facts identified in the request. The resolution meeting:

(1) must include a representative of the public education agency who has decision-making authority on behalf of the public education agency; and

(2) may not include an attorney of the public education agency unless the parent is accompanied by an attorney.

(b) The purpose of the resolution meeting is for the parent of the child to discuss the hearing issues and the facts that form the basis of the request for a hearing so that the public education agency has the opportunity to resolve the dispute.

(c) The resolution meeting described in subsections (a) and (b) of this section need not be held if:

(1) the parent and the public education agency agree in writing to waive the meeting; or

(2) the parent and the public education agency agree to use the mediation process described in §89.1193 of this title (relating to Special Education Mediation).

(d) The parent and the public education agency determine the relevant members of the admission, review, and dismissal committee to attend the resolution meeting.

(e) The parties may enter into a confidentiality agreement as part of their resolution agreement. There is nothing in this division, however, that requires the participants in a resolution meeting to keep the discussion confidential or make a confidentiality agreement a condition of a parent's participation in the resolution meeting.

(f) If the public education agency has not resolved the hearing issues to the satisfaction of the parent within 30 calendar days of the receipt of the request for a hearing, the hearing may occur.

(g) Except as provided in subsection (k) of this section, the timeline for issuing a final decision begins at the expiration of this 30-day resolution period.

(h) Except where the parties have jointly agreed to waive the resolution process or to use mediation, notwithstanding subsections (f) and (g) of this section, the failure of the parent filing a request for a hearing to participate in the resolution meeting delays the timelines for the resolution process and the hearing until the meeting is held.

(i) If the public education agency is unable to obtain the participation of the parent in the resolution meeting after reasonable efforts have been made (and documented in accordance with the procedures in 34 Code of Federal Regulations, §300.322(d)), the public education agency may at the conclusion of the 30-day resolution period, request that a hearing officer dismiss the parent's request for a hearing.

(j) If the public education agency fails to hold the resolution meeting within 15 calendar days of receiving the parent's request for a hearing or fails to participate in the resolution meeting, the parent may seek the intervention of the hearing officer to begin the hearing timeline.

(k) Notwithstanding subsections (f) and (g) of this section, the timeline for issuing a final decision starts the calendar day after one of the following events:

(1) both parties agree in writing to waive the resolution meeting;

(2) after either the mediation or resolution meeting starts but before the end of the 30-day resolution period, the parties agree in writing that no agreement is possible; or

(3) if both parties agree in writing to continue the mediation at the end of the 30-day resolution period, but later the parent or public education agency withdraws from the mediation process.

(l) If a resolution to the dispute is reached at the resolution meeting, the parties must execute a legally binding agreement that is:

(1) signed by both the parent and a representative of the public education agency who has the authority to bind the public education agency; and

(2) enforceable in any state or federal court of competent jurisdiction.

(m) If the parties execute an agreement pursuant to subsection (l) of this section, a party may void the agreement within three business days of the agreement's execution.

Source Note: The provisions of this §89.1183 adopted to be effective December 31, 2013, 38 TexReg 9552; amended to be effective March 1, 2017, 42 TexReg 760