| (a) Within 15 calendar days of receiving notice of
the parent's request for a due process hearing, the public education
agency must convene a resolution meeting with the parent and the relevant
members of the admission, review, and dismissal committee who have
specific knowledge of the facts identified in the request. The resolution
meeting:
(1) must include a representative of the public education
agency who has decision-making authority on behalf of the public education
agency; and
(2) may not include an attorney of the public education
agency unless the parent is accompanied by an attorney.
(b) The purpose of the resolution meeting is for the
parent of the child to discuss the hearing issues and the facts that
form the basis of the request for a hearing so that the public education
agency has the opportunity to resolve the dispute.
(c) The resolution meeting described in subsections
(a) and (b) of this section need not be held if:
(1) the parent and the public education agency agree
in writing to waive the meeting; or
(2) the parent and the public education agency agree
to use the mediation process described in §89.1193 of this title
(relating to Special Education Mediation).
(d) The parent and the public education agency determine
the relevant members of the admission, review, and dismissal committee
to attend the resolution meeting.
(e) The parties may enter into a confidentiality agreement
as part of their resolution agreement. There is nothing in this division,
however, that requires the participants in a resolution meeting to
keep the discussion confidential or make a confidentiality agreement
a condition of a parent's participation in the resolution meeting.
(f) If the public education agency has not resolved
the hearing issues to the satisfaction of the parent within 30 calendar
days of the receipt of the request for a hearing, the hearing may
occur.
(g) Except as provided in subsection (k) of this section,
the timeline for issuing a final decision begins at the expiration
of this 30-day resolution period.
(h) Except where the parties have jointly agreed to
waive the resolution process or to use mediation, notwithstanding
subsections (f) and (g) of this section, the failure of the parent
filing a request for a hearing to participate in the resolution meeting
delays the timelines for the resolution process and the hearing until
the meeting is held.
(i) If the public education agency is unable to obtain
the participation of the parent in the resolution meeting after reasonable
efforts have been made (and documented in accordance with the procedures
in 34 Code of Federal Regulations, §300.322(d)), the public education
agency may at the conclusion of the 30-day resolution period, request
that a hearing officer dismiss the parent's request for a hearing.
(j) If the public education agency fails to hold the
resolution meeting within 15 calendar days of receiving the parent's
request for a hearing or fails to participate in the resolution meeting,
the parent may seek the intervention of the hearing officer to begin
the hearing timeline.
(k) Notwithstanding subsections (f) and (g) of this
section, the timeline for issuing a final decision starts the calendar
day after one of the following events:
(1) both parties agree in writing to waive the resolution
meeting;
(2) after either the mediation or resolution meeting
starts but before the end of the 30-day resolution period, the parties
agree in writing that no agreement is possible; or
(3) if both parties agree in writing to continue the
mediation at the end of the 30-day resolution period, but later the
parent or public education agency withdraws from the mediation process.
(l) If a resolution to the dispute is reached at the
resolution meeting, the parties must execute a legally binding agreement
that is:
(1) signed by both the parent and a representative
of the public education agency who has the authority to bind the public
education agency; and
(2) enforceable in any state or federal court of competent
jurisdiction.
(m) If the parties execute an agreement pursuant to
subsection (l) of this section, a party may void the agreement within
three business days of the agreement's execution.
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