Jan 15, 2008
Yesterday New Jersey's Governor Corzine signed into law state legislation placing the burden of proof in all special education due process hearings on the school districts regardless of whether the parents or the school district requested the hearing. Similar to New York's legislation passed last fall, this bill rectifies the Supreme Court decision in Schaffer v Weast placing the burden of proof on the side challenging the IEP. In the Schaffer decision the Supreme Court did not discuss whether a state could pass legislation overriding this rule. The New Jersey legislation went into effect immedialtley upon Governor Corzine's signing.
