Requires the office of state review to render decisions on certain appeals pertaining to children with handicapping conditions within thirty days of receipt of such appeals and authorizes parties to file appeals in federal court at the expiration of the thirty days.
STATE OF NEW YORK
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6244
2015-2016 Regular Sessions
IN ASSEMBLY
March 18, 2015
___________
Introduced by M. of A. ABINANTI -- read once and referred to the Commit-
tee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to requiring the office
of state review to render decisions on certain appeals pertaining to
children with handicapping conditions within thirty days of receipt of
such appeals
The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem-bly, do enact as follows:
1 Section 1. Paragraph d of subdivision 7 of section 4410 of the educa-
2 tion law, as amended by section 57 of part H of chapter 83 of the laws
3 of 2002, is amended to read as follows:
4 d. (i) A state review officer of the education department shall review
5 the decision of the impartial hearing officer in the manner prescribed
6 in subdivision two of section forty-four hundred four of this article
7 and render a decision no later than thirty days after the decision of
8 such hearing officer.
9 (ii) Appeals taken to the office of state review shall be decided in
10 the order in which they are received. In the event that the state review
11 officer does not, within thirty days, render a final decision and
12 forward such decision to the parties, then the decision of the impartial
13 hearing officer shall be substituted for the decision that should have
14 been timely rendered by the state review officer and deemed to be final
15 for administrative purposes, without prejudice to any further appeal
16 that may be taken by any aggrieved party to the federal court pursuant
17 to 34 C.F.R. § 300.516.
18 § 2. Subdivision 2 of section 4404 of the education law, as amended by
19 chapter 53 of the laws of 1990, is amended to read as follows:
20 2. Review by state review officer. a. A state review officer of the
21 education department shall review and may modify, in such cases and to
22 the extent that the review officer deems necessary, in order to properly
23 effectuate the purposes of this article, any determination of the impar-
EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[] is old law to be omitted.
LBD08425-01-5
A. 6244 2
1 tial hearing officer relating to the determination of the nature of a
2 child's handicapping condition, selection of an appropriate special
3 education program or service and the failure to provide such program and
4 require such board to comply with the provisions of such modification.
5 The commissioner shall adopt regulations governing the practice and
6 procedure in such appeals to the state review officer; provided, howev-
7 er, that in no event shall any fee or charge whatsoever be imposed for
8 any appeal taken pursuant to this subdivision. The state review officer
9 is empowered to make all orders which are proper or necessary to give
10 effect to the decision of the review officer.
11 b. Appeals taken to the office of state review shall be decided in the
12 order in which they are received. In the event that the state review
13 officer does not, within thirty days, render a final decision and
14 forward such decision to the parties, then the decision of the impartial
15 hearing officer shall be substituted for the final decision that should
16 have been timely rendered by the state review officer and deemed to be
17 final for administrative purposes, without prejudice to any further
18 appeal that may be taken by any aggrieved party to the federal court
19 pursuant to 34 C.F.R. § 300.516.
20 § 3. This act shall take effect immediately and shall apply equally to
21 cases that have been pending before the office of state review for more
22 than 30 days following the receipt of a request for a review without
23 issuance of a decision as of the date this act shall have become a law
24 and to cases in which the 30-day period elapses without issuance of a
25 decision on or after the date this act shall have become a law.
