S T A T E O F N E W Y O R K
________________________________________________________________________
6636
2025-2026 Regular Sessions
I N A S S E M B L Y
March 6, 2025
___________
Introduced by M. of A. BUTTENSCHON -- read once and referred to the
Committee on Education
AN ACT to amend the education law, in relation to the burden of proof
for appeal procedures for children with handicapping conditions
THE PEOPLE OF THE STATE OF NEW YORK, REPRESENTED IN SENATE AND ASSEM-
BLY, DO ENACT AS FOLLOWS:
Section 1. Paragraph c of subdivision 1 of section 4404 of the educa-
tion law, as amended by section 1 of chapter 583 of the laws of 2007, is
amended to read as follows:
c. Individuals so appointed by a board of education or a state agency
shall be selected from a list of available impartial hearing officers
who have successfully completed an impartial hearing officer training
program conducted by the department according to a rotation selection
process prescribed in regulations of the commissioner; except that a
city school district of a city having a population of more than one
million inhabitants shall be exempt from such regulations to the extent
it maintains its rotational selection process in effect prior to July
first, nineteen hundred ninety-three. A record of proceedings before the
impartial hearing officer shall be maintained and made available to the
parties, and the hearing shall be conducted in accordance with the regu-
lations of the commissioner. The [board of education or trustees of the
school district or the state agency responsible for providing education
to students with disabilities] PARENT OR PERSON IN PARENTAL RELATIONSHIP
shall have the burden of proof, including the burden of persuasion and
burden of production, in any such impartial hearing[, except that a
parent or person in parental relation seeking tuition reimbursement for
a unilateral parental placement shall have the burden of persuasion and
burden of production on the appropriateness of such placement]. The
decision of the impartial hearing officer shall be binding upon both
parties unless appealed to the state review officer. The commissioner
shall establish a department training program which shall be completed
EXPLANATION--Matter in ITALICS (underscored) is new; matter in brackets
[ ] is old law to be omitted.
LBD09062-01-5
A. 6636 2
to the satisfaction of the commissioner as a condition of certification.
Impartial hearing officers shall have the qualifications specified in
subsection (f) of section fourteen hundred fifteen of title twenty of
the United States code, the implementing federal regulations and the
regulations of the commissioner. The commissioner shall promulgate regu-
lations to ensure that no individual employed by a school district,
school or program serving students with disabilities placed by a school
district committee on special education acts as an impartial hearing
officer and that no individual employed by such schools or programs
serves as an impartial hearing officer for two years following the
termination of such employment. The commissioner shall promulgate regu-
lations establishing procedures for the suspension or revocation of
impartial hearing officer certification for good cause. The commissioner
shall establish maximum rates for the compensation of impartial hearing
officers subject to the approval of the director of the division of the
budget.
§ 2. Subdivision 1 of section 4404 of the education law, as amended by
section 2 of chapter 583 of the laws of 2007, is amended to read as
follows:
1. If the recommendation of the committee on special education is not
acceptable to the parent or person in parental relationship of a
student, or if the committee or board of education or trustees fails to
make or effectuate such a recommendation within such periods of time as
may be required by regulations of the commissioner, such parents or
persons in parental relationship shall notify the board of education of
this situation and the board shall appoint an impartial hearing officer
to hear the appeal and make a determination within such period of time
as the commissioner by regulation shall determine, provided that the
board of education or trustees shall offer the parent or person in
parental relationship the option of mediation pursuant to section
forty-four hundred four-a of this article as an alternative to an impar-
tial hearing. Individuals so appointed by a board of education shall be
selected from a list of available hearing officers who have successfully
completed a hearing officer training program conducted by the department
according to a rotation selection process prescribed in regulations of
the commissioner; except that a city school district of a city having a
population of more than one million inhabitants shall be exempt from
such regulations to the extent it maintains its rotational selection
process in effect prior to July first, nineteen hundred ninety-three. A
record of proceedings before the hearing officer shall be maintained and
made available to the parties. The [board of education or trustees of
the school district or the state agency responsible for providing educa-
tion to students with disabilities] PARENT OR PERSON IN PARENTAL
RELATIONSHIP shall have the burden of proof, including the burden of
persuasion and burden of production, in any such impartial hearing[,
except that a parent or person in parental relation seeking tuition
reimbursement for a unilateral parental placement shall have the burden
of persuasion and burden of production on the appropriateness of such
placement]. The decision of the hearing officer shall be binding upon
both parties unless appealed to the state review officer. The commis-
sioner shall establish a department training program which shall be
completed to the satisfaction of the commissioner as a condition of
certification. The commissioner shall develop and implement a plan to
ensure that no individual employed by a school district, school or
program serving students with disabilities placed by a school district
committee on special education acts as an impartial hearing officer and
A. 6636 3
that no individual employed by such schools or programs serves as an
impartial hearing officer for two years following the termination of
such employment. Such plan shall be fully implemented no later than July
first, nineteen hundred ninety-six. The commissioner shall promulgate
regulations establishing procedures for the suspension or revocation of
impartial hearing officer certification for good cause. The commissioner
shall establish maximum rates for the compensation of impartial hearing
officers subject to the approval of the director of the division of the
budget. The commissioner shall promulgate regulations establishing
procedures and timelines for expedited hearings in cases involving: (a)
review of a decision that a student with a disability's behavior was not
a manifestation of such student's disability, or (b) review of an inter-
im alternative educational setting or other placement to the extent
required under federal law, or (c) a request by the school district for
a determination that maintaining the current educational placement of
the student is substantially likely to result in injury to the student
or to others.
§ 3. This act shall take effect immediately; provided, however, that
the amendments to paragraph c of subdivision 1 of section 4404 of the
education law made by section one of this act shall be subject to the
expiration and reversion of such subdivision pursuant to section 22 of
chapter 352 of the laws of 2005, as amended, when upon such date the
provisions of section two of this act shall take effect.