On Friday, October 14, the Ohio Department of Education filed proposed revisions to the IDEA operating standards (Ohio Administrative Code 3301-51). On Tuesday, November 15, the State Board of Education will hold a hearing on these proposed revisions. This is all part of the lengthy regulatory process that has now been underway for several years. It is possible that the new regulations will be in place sometime in the coming months, though the current process has experienced unexpected delays several times before.

The area of revision that has been of most interest to school districts has been the possibility of aligning Ohio’s IDEA regulations with the federal regulations as relates to changes in placement (OAC 3301-51-05(C)(5)). At the federal level IDEA does not require parental consent before a child’s placement is changed. This allows for a dynamic and responsive approach to designing a child’s special education.

Unfortunately, the current Ohio regulations impose a parental consent requirement for changes of placement. This means that parents can unilaterally overrule the IEP team consensus that a change of placement is necessary to provide FAPE. In such situations, schools are forced to file due process to change placement or to continue to serve the child in the inappropriate placement. Either approach can delay the appropriate provision of services.

Anecdotally, school district leaders uniformly supported a change to the parental consent requirement for changes of placement when this revision was included in the version of the proposed regulations presented to the State Board of Education in July 2020. Unfortunately, despite this support, ODE revised the proposed regulations to reinsert the parental consent requirement in the version now being considered.

Despite the major departure from federal regulations with the parental consent language, other changes in the proposed regulations are mostly to align state regulations to the federal regulations. Some of the more substantial changes include:

OAC 3301-51-01(B)(13) Transition Services: Clarifies expectations for transition service planning and coordination.

OAC 3301-51-01(B)(63) Supervisor/Coordinator Services: Clarifies professional qualifications for the IEP team member who supervises special education service providers.

OAC 3301-51-03(C) Disproportionality: Significant new language regarding disproportionality as it relates to the identification, placement, and discipline of students with disabilities.

OAC 3301-51-05(E) Surrogate Parents: Significant additional language about surrogate parent duties. Additional clarification that no surrogate may be appointed when biological/adoptive parents retain educational rights and can be contacted.

OAC 3301-51-07(E)(2) Transition Services: Codifies the current practice of requiring transition progress reports for Section 5 of the IEP.
OAC 3301-51-07(H)(7) Transmittal of Records: Sets a 30 day time period for transmittal of records when a child enrolls in a new school district.

Significant changes to preschool regulations are made throughout OAC 3301 Chapter 51 and are beyond the scope of this newsletter article and relate to separate changes already finalized for OAC 3301-51-11.

Over the past several years there have been many opportunities for school leaders to give input in the regulatory process. We are approaching the end of this opportunity and can anticipate that new regulations will be adopted within the next few months and will be in place for several years. School leaders are encouraged to give feedback to the State Board of Education in advance of or at its November 15 hearing on the proposed regulations. As was noted above, of particular interest is the proposal to not align with the federal IDEA regulations as it relates to parental consent for changes of placement (OAC 3301-51-05(C)(5)). This departure from federal regulations is a major barrier for some IEP teams as they seek to meet the unique needs of students with disabilities.

The currently proposed regulations can be found by using the search tools at the Register of Ohio Website:
https://www.registerofohio.state.oh.us/rules/search

The agency number for the Ohio Department of Education is 3301, and the chapter is 51.