{"id":25342,"date":"2020-01-09T09:59:00","date_gmt":"2020-01-09T13:59:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/?p=25342"},"modified":"2020-01-06T11:12:45","modified_gmt":"2020-01-06T15:12:45","slug":"due-process-decisions-difference-between-sro-and-iho","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/due-process-decisions-difference-between-sro-and-iho\/","title":{"rendered":"Due Process Decisions: Difference Between SRO and IHO?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"padding-bottom:20px; padding-top:10px;\" class=\"hupso-share-buttons\"><!-- Hupso Share Buttons - https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/ --><a class=\"hupso_pop\" href=\"https:\/\/www.hupso.com\/share\/\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/buttons\/gallery\/share-button-gray.png\" style=\"border:0px\" alt=\"Share\" \/><\/a><script type=\"text\/javascript\">var hupso_services=new Array(\"Twitter\",\"Facebook\",\"Google Plus\",\"Pinterest\",\"Linkedin\",\"StumbleUpon\",\"Digg\",\"Reddit\",\"Bebo\",\"Delicious\");var hupso_icon_type = \"labels\";var hupso_background=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_border=\"#FFFFFF\";var hupso_image_folder_url = \"\";var hupso_twitter_via=\"wrightslaw\";var hupso_url=\"\";var hupso_title=\"Due%20Process%20Decisions%3A%20Difference%20Between%20SRO%20and%20IHO%3F\";<\/script><script type=\"text\/javascript\" src=\"https:\/\/static.hupso.com\/share\/js\/share.js\"><\/script><!-- Hupso Share Buttons --><\/div><blockquote><p>In special education law cases and decisions, what is the difference between a SRO and IHO?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter  wp-image-25345\" src=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/dp.gavel_.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"502\" height=\"335\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/dp.gavel_.jpg 900w, https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/dp.gavel_-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/11\/dp.gavel_-768x512.jpg 768w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 502px) 100vw, 502px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>SRO is a State Review Officer.<\/p>\n<p>IHO is an Independent Hearing Officer.<\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Due Process Appeals<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>When parents and school districts are in disagreement, there are several methods to resolve the disputes. One, involving litigation, requires filing of a request for a due process hearing.<\/p>\n<p>After the due process decision is issued, the losing party has the right to appeal. If the party does not appeal, the due process decision is the final decision.<\/p>\n<p><strong><span style=\"color: #000080;\">Appeals: Single-Tier States <\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n<p>In most states, the losing party at a due process hearing appeals directly to either state or federal court.<\/p>\n<p>Those states are known as &#8220;Single-Tier States.&#8221; The federal court is known as the U.S. District Court.<\/p>\n<p>Most states have a single-tier due process hearing system.&nbsp; This means that the losing party at a due process hearing can appeal the HO \/ IHO&#8217;s decision <em>directly<\/em> to court.<\/p>\n<p>See page 12 in <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/bks\/2018law\/index.htm\"><em><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Wrightslaw: Special Education Legal Developments &amp; Cases 2018<\/span><\/em><\/a><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">.<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #000080;\"><strong>Appeals: Two-Tier States<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<p>A few states are known as two-tiered, meaning that the losing party at a due process hearing <em>appeals to the state first. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>States, including Kansas, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Oklahoma, and South Carolina, with this <em>second appellate level<\/em> are known as &#8220;Two-Tier States.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The State Department of Education appoints a Reviewing Officer (RO), State Review Officer (SRO), or a Review Panel &#8211; depending on that state&#8217;s regulations. Sometimes that review person is known as an SRO rather than a RO. (In New York, for example.)<\/p>\n<p><em>After<\/em> an adverse state level review decision is issued by the RO \/ SRO, the losing party at the review level <em>can then appeal directly to either state or federal court. <\/em><\/p>\n<p>In some states the initial Hearing Officer (HO) is known as an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), but for our purposes the person is the same as a HO. Some states with ALJ&#8217;s are single-tier states and others are two-tier states.<\/p>\n<p>See page 115-116, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/bks\/selaw2\/selaw2.htm\"><em><span style=\"color: #0066cc;\">Wrightslaw: Special Education Law, 2nd Edition<\/span><\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In special education law cases and decisions, what is the difference between a SRO and IHO? SRO is a State Review Officer. IHO is an Independent Hearing Officer. Due Process <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/due-process-decisions-difference-between-sro-and-iho\/\">Continue Reading \u2192<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":25345,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1266,5,6],"tags":[388,1540,1539,1541],"class_list":["post-25342","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-due-process","category-idea-2004","category-legal-decisions","tag-due-process-hearings","tag-independent-hearing-officer","tag-state-review-officer","tag-two-tier-states"],"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25342","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25342"}],"version-history":[{"count":18,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25342\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":25449,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25342\/revisions\/25449"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25342"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25342"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.wrightslaw.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25342"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}