The BSEA statistics for Fiscal Year 2020 and the overview given of the year by BSEA Director Reece Erlichman provide interesting insights into not only the invaluable work of the BSEA, but also into some trends into the subject matter of special education disputes in the Commonwealth.

Providing yet another example of the never-seen before Covid-19 effects, for the first time in the BSEA’s existence, the number of rejected IEPs actually declined.

Rejected IEPs
FY20 – 9,442
FY19 – 11,979
FY18 – 11,900
FY17 – 11,400
FY16 – 10,800

While the number of hearing requests had basically stabilized over the last few years at around 500, FY20 saw a precipitous drop in the number of hearing requests.
FY 20 – 379
FY19 – 483
FY18 – 481
FY17 – 495
FY16 – 568
FY15 – 492

Matters going through full hearings resulting in written decisions were consistently around 50 per year until they declined significantly after FY13. FY18 yielded the lowest number of full hearings (13) since the early days of the BSEA. The consensus is this was attributable to two factors. First, and most significantly, is the number of matters going to settlement conferences and the effectiveness of Reece Erlichman in getting those matters resolved. Second, was the use of pre-trial motions to resolve matters completely or position them for resolution. Settlement conferences were held in 68 of the cases that were filed for hearing in FY20 (as compared to 67 in FY19 cases), of which 62 were resolved the day of the settlement conference. Although the number of hearing requests filed in FY20 was over 100 fewer that FY19, the number of matters going to full hearings with written decisions was identical.

FY20 – 19
FY19 – 19
FY18 – 13
FY17 – 22
FY16 – 23
FY15 – 18
FY14 – 25
FY13 – 52

Of the 19 decisions noted above, Parents fully prevailed in 4. Parents had counsel in 3. The School Districts fully prevailed in 10 and of those, Parents had counsel in 3, an advocate in 1, and were pro se in 6. 4 cases yielded mixed relief, with Parents having counsel in 2, and pro se in 2. 1 decision involved an LEA assignment.

The BSEA conducted 77 facilitated IEP Team meetings in FY20 (with 8 un-met requests), a decrease from the 114 conducted during the previous year.

There were 573 mediations conducted in FY 20 (another significant decrease – down from 714 in FY19), with an agreement rate of 83%.

Since BSEA filings are confidential, the only publicly accessible information about those is what can be gleaned from the relatively small number of written decisions about some of the cases. However, Reece Erlichman has provided insight into some of the trends reflective in the bulk of the filings. There was an increase in filings regarding providing services in the Least Restrictive Environment (“LRE”), typically involving Parents resisting efforts to move the student into a less inclusive setting. There was a bump in the number of requests involving students with hearing impairments and a continued significant number of filings involving the responsibilities of state agencies, such as DMH and DDS.

A full review of the BSEA statistics from the past 10 years can be found at https://www.mass.gov/bsea-statistics.

A NOTE OF GRATITUDE
We take this opportunity to express immense gratitude to the BSEA. When we consider how various entities and individual responded to the Covid-19 crisis, the BSEA stands out as one of the most remarkable ones. The BSEA, certainly not blessed with the resources of other governmental agencies, didn’t miss a beat. Due to the commitment, vision, and hard work of the BSEA director and hearing officers, the BSEA’s assistance in resolving disputes about the provision of special education services continued without pause. For this, our community is eternally grateful.

We would like to highlight the significant contribution of one hearing officer, Ray Oliver, who retired near the close of FY20 after forty-one years at the BSEA. Ray demonstrated a deep passion for moving adversaries beyond their proud inflexibility as they prepared to do battle in hearings before him. He was truly masterful, most often in pre-hearing conferences but even the day hearings were to begin, in guiding parents, school administrators, and attorneys out of their steadfast certainty to a recognition of various shortcomings. More importantly, Ray was able to so often to get the varied people involved to recognize the long-term costs for both sides of fighting to the bitter end, especially when young children were involved and the parties had many years of dealing with each other ahead of them. His pragmatism and genuine concern for the human costs of litigation spoke volumes to the parties and counsel, and much more often than not, led even the most adversarial and zealous advocates to fair and practical compromise. We are grateful for having the great fortune of practicing before such a fine man and wish him all the best.

Daniel T.S. Heffernan, Esq. is a partner in the Special Education & Disability Rights practice group at Kotin, Crabtree & Strong, LLP in Boston, Massachusetts.