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GAO-02-559R 1 (2002-05-22)

handle is hein.gao/gaocrptaotp0001 and id is 1 raw text is: SGAO Accountability * Integrity * Reliability United States General Accounting Office Washington, DC 20548 May 22, 2002 Congressional Subcommittees Subject: DCPS: Attorneys' Fees for Access to Special Education Opportunities The District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS) has had difficulty meeting the obligation to its special education students under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (20 U.S.C. § 1400 et sea.) (IDEA). By 1998, DCPS was experiencing serious problems in conducting timely hearings requested by parents under IDEA and in issuing final decisions within the required timelines. This, in turn, resulted in an increasingly large number of parental complaints and legal suits filed against DCPS to obtain access to the educational opportunities called for under the act. As a result, the amount of attorneys' fees awarded to parties who prevailed in the IDEA cases became costly to the District of Columbia. The District of Columbia Appropriations Acts for fiscal years 1999, 2000, and 2001 limited the amount of appropriated funds that could be paid to an attorney representing a prevailing party in an action brought against DCPS under IDEA. Section 140(b) of the District of Columbia Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2002 (Public Law No. 107-96, 115 Stat. 923, 958 (2001)) directed the Superintendent of DCPS to report to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees a complete itemized list of attorneys' fees awarded by a court to plaintiffs who had prevailed in these types of cases against the District of Columbia or DCPS under section 615(i)(3) of IDEA (20 U.S.C. § 1415(i)(3)). The report was to include the amount of each award, the amount paid on each award, unpaid balances on each award, as well as other information. DCPS provided its final report to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees on February 28, 2002. Section 141 of the District of Columbia Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2002 also directed that we report on this topic. We were directed to identify attorneys' fees awarded by the courts to prevailing plaintiffs that were in excess of the appropriations acts' limitations. Section 141 also directed us to provide a comparison, to the extent practicable, of the causes of actions and judgments rendered against public school districts with demographics and population comparable to those of the District. This letter confirms the agreement reached between the staff of the subcommittees and GAO as a result of our briefing on March 15, 2002, and includes the information we presented at the briefing. As a result of the briefing, it was agreed that the information provided satisfied our reporting requirement under section 141 and that no additional work is required. GAO-02-559R Attorneys' Fees

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