State and Federal Special Education Regulations

The most important federal direction related to special education is contained in the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA '97) and the federal regulations (called Part 300) that explain how the law should be implemented by the states. This law can be quite complicated. To make it easier to understand and find topics of interest, there are searchable versions of the law.

In Pennsylvania, we have incorporated the federal regulations into our state regulations, which are referred to as Chapter 14. There are a few areas where Pennsylvania adds to the requirements of the federal regulations for Pennsylvania students. The Side-by-Side Quick Reference of the federal and state regulations identifies those additions.

IDEA '97 says that students with disabilities who need specially designed instruction to succeed in school are entitled to a free, appropriate, public education. Another federal law, referred to as Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, guarantees that students with disabilities will not be discriminated against in school. The regulations that explain how Section 504 should be implemented by the states are referred to as Part 104.

Special Education Appeals Panel
At times, families of students with disabilities and educational entities disagree about some aspect of the special education program. IDEA '97 requires states to provide an administrative forum to hear these disputes, in addition to encouraging parties to consider mediation and other dispute resolution techniques. If a due process hearing officer decides a special education dispute, he or she prepares a written decision. In most instances, parties unhappy with a hearing officer's decision can ask for review by the Special Education Appeals Panel.

Education Appeals Panel Exceptions
There are some exceptions to the availability of the Special Education Appeals Panel to hear a case. The Special Education Appeals Panel does not have jurisdiction over early intervention/preschool cases or cases involving only Section 504/Chapter 15 issues. Those cases must be appealed to a court of competent jurisdiction. Parents are encouraged to seek legal counsel for assistance in choosing the correct court with which to file an appeal, and to ensure that any applicable timelines and procedures are followed.

There have been more than 1500 cases decided by the Special Education Appeals Panel since it was formed. These cases provide excellent information about how Pennsylvania interprets the special education laws.

PDE Forms
The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) also prepares various forms of guidance on special education issues, including Policy statements, called Basic Education Circulars (called "BECs"), Guidance in the form of Questions and Answers on different special education topics and Model forms and formats for standard special education documents, such as IEPs and Evaluation Reports.

In 2001, Pennsylvania revised its special education regulations (known as Chapter 14) and, for the most part, incorporated the federal regulations (Part 300 of Chapter 34 of the Code of Federal Regulations) as our state regulations. Prior to this change, Pennsylvania had two sets of regulations: Chapter 14 and Chapter 342. When the regulations were revised, the sections of Chapter 342 that the State Board determined should be retained were incorporated into Chapter 14. The remaining sections of Chapter 342 no longer exist as special education regulations in Pennsylvania.

With respect to Pennsylvania's incorporation of the federal regulations, there are a few instances where Pennsylvania added provisions that are not in the federal regulations. You can find these differences in the Side-By-Side Quick Reference comparing Chapter 14 to Part 300.

There are several chapters and provisions of Title 22 of the Pennsylvania Code that address important education issues. For example, Chapter 4 discusses Academic Standards and Assessments, Chapter 11 includes provisions about student attendance, Chapter 15 discusses a school's responsibility to comply with Section 504, and Chapter 16 addresses Special Education for Gifted Students.