Is mediation a fair way to resolve special education disputes? First empirical findings.

Examines whether special ed. mediations are successful and looks at parents’ and schools’ perceptions of fairness, satisfaction with results, implementation of agreements, and looks at SES of parents, characteristics of children, wealth of districts, and presence of advocates. Authors collected data through mailed questionnaires to parents and school officials. Parents and school officials did not differ in their level of satisfaction, both were moderately satisfied w/ fairness of the process and slightly more satisfied with the agreement/implementation. Parents from poorer school districts tended to be more satisfied with the agreements. School officials tended to view mediations regarding younger children as more fair, those w/older children as less fair.  No relationship was found between specific mediators and the rated outcomes. Presence of advocates overall did not affect parental satisfaction w/process, agreement or implementation, but parents w/attorney advocates viewed the process as more fair than those w/lay advocates or no advocates. Schools had legal representation in every case.  Strong correlation between parents’ and schools’ satisfaction w/implementation, but not between perceptions of fairness of process or outcome