Avoiding special education due process hearings: Lessons from the field.

School personnel often find that parents are dissatisfied with their child's special education program. What individualized education program (IEP) teams do to prevent and handle parents' discontent helps determine if dissatisfaction will turn into a protracted, acrimonious legal battle or an opportunity to improve the student's program and the relationship between the school staff and the parents. In this article, I provide IEP teams with practical guidelines and implementation strategies for preventing and responding to parents' dissatisfaction about their child's special education program. (Abstract from Author)