The General Assembly and the Governor approved Senate Bill 220 (Favola) and House Bill 1089 (Coyner) introduced during the 2024 Session. The legislation made several changes relating to special education and related services for children with disabilities in public elementary and secondary schools in the Commonwealth. The legislation’s tenth enactment clause directed:

That the Virginia Commission on Youth (the Commission) shall study and make recommendations on Virginia's special education dispute resolution system. In conducting such study, the Commission shall (i) consider the entire special education dispute resolution system in the Commonwealth, including the parent ombudsman for special education, mediation, complaints, and due process; (ii) review the effectiveness of such system in responding to the concerns of parents, analyze such system in comparison to best practices from other states, and make actionable recommendations for improvement, including regulatory, statutory, staffing, and budgetary modifications; and (iii) specifically review and make recommendations to improve the Department of Education's system for collecting, tracking, analyzing, and publicly reporting data on parent interactions with such system and the outcomes of such interactions. The Commission shall report its findings and recommendations to the General Assembly no later than November 1, 2025.

During June of 2024, the Commission on Youth, in partnership with the Parent Education Advocacy Training Center (PEATC), hosted four in-person listening sessions in Wytheville, Henrico, Arlington, and Norfolk and one virtual session. A wide variety of stakeholders attended the sessions including teachers, parents, students, school officials, public officials, legislators, members of the administration and parent advocates. On September 18, 2024, the Commission convened an Advisory Group of special education stakeholders. An update of the implementation of the 2024 special education legislation was given along with a summary of the summer listening sessions. The consultant for the study gave an update of his progress with the study. A roundtable discussion of the study took place and the meeting concluded with public comment.

In 2025, the Advisory Group convened on May 5 and July 7. At the May 5 meeting, the Advisory Group received an update from the Commission’s consultant. Following the consultant’s presentation, members of the Advisory Group went into small group breakout sessions where they discussed the following questions:

• What is the one thing in dispute resolution that would make the system better for all families?

• Where do I see the most alignment among stakeholders for reform and the most disagreement?

At the July 7 meeting, the consultant presented his draft recommendations. Then members of the Advisory Group went into small group breakout sessions where they discussed the consultant’s draft recommendations and were directed to formulate Advisory Group recommendations. In addition, the small breakout groups considered draft recommendations from Delegate Carrie Coyner’s listening session of stakeholders. The meeting concluded with public comment. Draft study recommendations that came out of this process were presented at the Commission’s September 3, 2025 meeting. The Commission received written public comments through October 15, 2025. After receiving in-person public comments at the October 21, 2025 meeting, the Commission on Youth adopted the following recommendations:

Universal Awareness & Training on the Dispute Resolution Process

Recommendation 1:

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) should provide awareness and training for the formal dispute resolution options. Develop consistent training on laws, processes, systemic & structural biases, neutrality, and the family perspective. Provide step-by step expectations for what happens when parties agree or disagree. Develop and provide easy-to-read resources, self-help materials and tools for all parties to help families and school staff understand the dispute resolution process in a tangible way. Ensure that training and awareness materials are developed with input by independent subject-matter experts whose professional experience and backgrounds reflect a range of racial, cultural, and historically marginalized perspectives.

VDOE should provide early conflict resolution training to school staff, and when appropriate, lay advocates and parents to improve communication and collaborative problem-solving. As part of this:

• Encourage school divisions, advocates, and parents to participate in structured early conflict resolution and communication training, ideally aligned with existing efforts by VDOE and PEATC through the CADRE project.

• Focus on de-escalation strategies, trauma-informed practices, and effective family
engagement.

• Provide voluntary training to lay advocates on the dispute resolution system, early conflict resolution, and effective communication strategies.

Recommendation 2:

VDOE should expand multilingual parent education and dispute resolution navigation tools. Create a mobile-friendly webpage offering plain-language descriptions of dispute options, video explainers and real-world scenarios, interactive guidance based on the nature of the concern. VDOE should leverage PEATC and other neutral third-party partners to provide coaching and support to families throughout the dispute process, both before and during the process. Require local education agencies to provide this information on their websites.

State Complaints

Recommendation 3:

VDOE should strengthen oversight of school division implementation of Corrective Action Plans (CAP) through increased documentation requirements and quarterly monitoring for one year after a CAP or other remedy is mandated. VDOE should conduct random oversight of school divisions specific to dispute resolution to ensure consistent implementation of timelines, roles, forms, and procedures.

Recommendation 4:

VDOE should consult a neutral independent expert to conduct mandatory initial and ongoing training for state complaint personnel involved in investigation of complaints and writing of Letters of Finding regarding the IDEA state complaint system and standard decision writing practices, including issue specification and applicable standards of law. The training must include the determination and statement of issues for a state complaint; the conduct of the investigation; and the writing of the Letters of Finding, including enforceable final corrective actions. Training should be followed by the availability of a minimum of two months of technical assistance from the trainer to the state complaint personnel from case assignment to case closure.

Recommendation 5:

VDOE should collect, track/monitor, and publicly report the data on the enforcement of all Letters of Finding with ordered remedies, once enforceable final corrective actions are provided in the Letters of Finding. Ensure public reporting of dispute resolution outcomes and corrective actions (excluding student identifiers) through the publication of an annual dashboard to include:

• Number and outcomes.
• Common issues (e.g., FAPE, placement, evaluations).
• Timelines of resolution, including applicable enforcement actions.
• Patterns of repeat filings by division.

Facilitated IEPs

Recommendation 6:

VDOE should substantially restructure and enhance the state-supported system of trained, neutral qualified facilitators, independent from school divisions. Incorporate the use of facilitated IEP meetings into VDOE technical assistance materials, IEP procedural guides, and family dispute resolution resources. Explore adding facilitated IEPs as a recommended step in VDOE’s procedural safeguards and guidance documents, aligned with IDEA’s preferences for early resolution. VDOE should maintain a list of facilitators; provide guidance on when to offer a facilitator; how to request a facilitator; and the role of the facilitator.

In the restructuring of the IEP facilitation system, VDOE should utilize the intensive technical assistance from CADRE and receive input from independent subject-matter experts whose professional experience and backgrounds reflect a range of racial, cultural, and historically marginalized perspectives.

Recommendation 7:

VDOE should collect, track, analyze, and publicly report data on the number of IEP facilitations conducted and the outcomes of each IEP facilitation meeting.

• Require divisions to document and report when facilitated IEP meetings are offered and used (similar to how mediation usage is reported under IDEA).

• Publish annual summary data that reports statewide and by division showing trends in requests, usage, outcomes, and geographic distribution of facilitated IEP meetings.

• Use data to identify divisions with underutilization and provide support to build capacity and awareness.

Recommendation 8:

VDOE should consult with CADRE, PEATC, parents/families, and other neutral organizations with professional experience and backgrounds that reflect a range of racial, cultural, and historically marginalized perspectives on strategies to recruit qualified IEP facilitators.

Special Education Mediation

Recommendation 9:

VDOE should update the training process to ensure all mediators are trained using VDOE-approved materials aligned with IDEA and Virginia regulations. Require mediators to complete specialized training in:

• Federal and State special education law and regulations.
• Student-centered decision-making to ensure that the mediation process is understandable, fair, and accessible to families.
• Mediation strategies that facilitate respectful, balanced participation for both parents and schools.
• Communication strategies that demonstrate clarity and support family engagement.
• IEP development.

As part of the training process, require ongoing professional development and recertification every 2-3 years for mediators.

Recommendation 10:

VDOE should consider the addition of an independent neutral expert in laws and regulations relating to the provision of special education and effective mediation techniques to provide ongoing technical assistance to mediators, upon request.

Recommendation 11:

VDOE should ensure that there is a mandatory annual evaluation for mediators to be conducted by an independent neutral expert. To assist, VDOE should develop a consumer-friendly and universally accessible process to promote the submission by parents of post-mediation consumer evaluations of the mediation system and the mediator used.

Recommendation 12:

VDOE should provide multimedia approaches to share information about mediation and other alternative dispute resolution processes, including the use of social media, to ensure the information is visible in schools and communities.

Special Education Due Process Hearings

Recommendation 13:

VDOE should update its training process to ensure all due process hearing officers are trained using VDOE-approved materials aligned with IDEA and Virginia regulations.

Require hearing officers to complete specialized training in:

• Federal and State special education law and regulations.
• Student-centered decision-making to ensure that the hearing process is understandable, fair, and accessible to families.
• Hearing strategies that facilitate respectful, balanced participation for both parents and schools.
• Communication strategies that demonstrate clarity and support family engagement.
• IEP development.

As part of the training process, require ongoing professional development and recertification every 2-3 years for hearing officers.

Recommendation 14:

VDOE should promulgate and revise current regulations to require the hearing officer to conduct a prehearing conference in every case, as early as possible at the commencement of the 45-day hearing timeline in non-expedited cases and, as soon as possible in expedited cases. Revise regulations to include the minimum areas that must be addressed and determined at the prehearing conference, including the clarification of the issues to be heard and relief requested and determination of jurisdiction over the parties and the issues. The mandated pre-hearing conference shall not delay the due process timeline.

Recommendation 15:

VDOE should reform the current due process hearing system to provide oversight by a knowledgeable and impartial individual/agency to:

• Supervise the hearing officers’ implementation of standard and best legal practices at all stages of the hearing process, including prehearing, hearing, and decision/order writing;

• Create an evaluation system for measuring hearing officers’ performance. VDOE should work with PEATC, parents/families, other neutral organizations with professional experience and backgrounds that reflect a range of racial, cultural, and historically marginalized perspectives, and school divisions to promote the submission by parents and school division personnel of post-hearing surveys of the hearing process; and

• Provide the hearing officers access to technical assistance on an ongoing basis.

Recommendation 16:

VDOE or an impartial individual/agency should analyze annually and report data for fully adjudicated cases on the percentage of time parents or public agencies prevail in due process hearing and, separately, mixed/split decisions. Conduct anonymous parent/staff surveys about fairness, neutrality, and satisfaction. Data should track how disputes are addressed, resolved, or elevated to formal processes to identify trends and opportunities for systemic improvement. This information shall be made available to the public on VDOE’s website.

Recommendation 17:

VDOE should meet with relevant stakeholders including parents/families and neutral organizations with professional experience and backgrounds that reflect a range of racial, cultural, and historically marginalized perspectives to adopt an optional authorization/certification process for advocates including attorneys and non-attorneys that includes qualifications of knowledge, experience, and standards of professional responsibility/conduct. Any authorization process should be in regulations by January 1, 2027 to ensure uniform standards.

Recommendation 18:

VDOE should consider whether the current qualifications to serve and be recertified as a special education hearing officer need to be augmented. If the current hearing system is maintained, all current and former applicant hearing officers should be required to reapply and, if selected, successfully complete the pre-service training and be recertified on a regular basis.

Recommendation 19:

VDOE should review the rates hearing officers receive for conducting proceedings for other Virginia agencies/entities that require specialized knowledge and training and consider increasing the rate for trained special education hearing officers.

Recommendation 20:

Amend the Code of Virginia and introduce a budget amendment to increase staffing and relocate the Parent Ombudsman for Special Education’s office outside of VDOE to the Office of the Children’s Ombudsman to enhance its neutrality and public trust. Responsibilities would include one-on-one technical assistance for families and schools; monitoring systemic concerns; public reporting on trends and recommendations. This recommendation includes a delayed enactment clause of January 1, 2027.

Recommendation 21:

VDOE should conduct and implement the following awareness and resource initiatives and maintain such approaches:

• Develop and implement an initial promotional campaign at the school level in collaboration with families, PEATC, parent organizations, and other organizations with professional experience and backgrounds that reflect a range of racial, cultural, and historically marginalized perspectives on effective strategies to get information to the users of the resources and maintain visibility.

• Develop or adopt parent-friendly resources on the VDOE Ombudsman website, such as brochures and videos, to supplement the one-page summaries.

• Supplement its multimedia offerings with additional parent and educator friendly resources on the development and utilization of early conflict resolution skills for both school personnel and parents.

• All materials and multimedia offerings should be ADA compliant, multilingual, and culturally responsive.

Dismissal of Certain Vexatious and Repetitive Complaints

Recommendation 22:

Request the Virginia Department of Education to report to the Senate Education and Health and House Education Committees prior to the 2027 General Assembly Session, the data (number of dismissals based on vexatious and repetitive complaints) on hearing officers’ use of the law enacted by HB 2606 (Ware) to dismiss due process hearing complaints.