Due process hearing officers: characteristics, needs, and appointment criteria.

Characteristics and training needs of due process hearing officers in North Carolina were surveyed. It was found that current regulations governing appointments of hearing officers are insufficient to ensure appointment of qualified and impartial persons. Criteria were analyzed and suggestions for training and appointments are made. ANN P. TURNBULL is Research Associate, Bureau of Child Research, University of Kansas, Lawrence; BONNIE STRICKLAND is Administrative Assistant, Division for Special Education, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and a due process hearing officer; and H. RUTHERFORD TURNBULL is Chairman, Department of Special Education, University of Kansas, Lawrence. • Due process assures fairness in the identification, evaluation, and placement of handicapped students in special education and related services. To ensure due process , handicapped students and their representatives and/or the local educational agency may request a hearing to protest each other's decisions. The local education agency or state education agency is required to appoint an impartial hearing officer. Some hearing officers are appointed by the state education agency (e.g., in Illinois), while others are appointed by local education agencies (e.g., in North Carolina, where they are appointed by local education agency superintendents). A hearing may not be conducted by an employee of a public agency involved in the education or care of the child, or by any person with a personal or professional interest which conflicts with objectivity in the hearing. A person who otherwise qualifies to conduct a hearing is not an employee of the agency solely because he or she is paid by the agency to serve as a hearing officer. Each public agency must keep a list of hearing officers, including a statement of the qualifications of each (Federal Register, Sec . 121a.507, p. 42495) . It is unclear whether or not hearing officers are 4 4 qual i f ied" by their impartiality alone or if they m u s t also be profess ional ly qual i f ied (Turnbull, Turnbull, & Strickland, 1979). The Exceptional Children, Volume 48, Number 1. Copyright © 1981 The Council for Exceptional Children.