Last week, I provided free parent training on Special Education Community Complaints (SECC) for the Benton-Franklin Counties Special Education PTA. This column follows the presentation.
The most important goal of an SECC is to improve the system, and your own child’s education experience. Regardless of OSPI’s decision, the school district will reflect on their practices, and likely improve them. You always win.
So the next question is: How do you always win? Mell Martin, a mother of a North Thurston Public School (NTPS) student, has the answer.
Once you have done the easy part — filling out the background information, such as student name, school and district information — the complaint form requires you to identify the alleged violation.
While you do need to state that a violation of the WAC or IDEA (Individuals with Disabilities Education Act) has occurred, don’t fret. “The school didn’t evaluate my child despite repeated requests,” is an example of such a statement. See? You don’t need to speak legalese.
Martin submitted one of the first SECCs of 2025, all in normal human language. Although one allegation triggered the complaint, “The problems blossomed into several separate, but connected, issues,” she told me. “There are violations of several special education regulations and laws.”
Chances are, your problem has spanned more than a full school year. OSPI will investigate claims going back 12 months. However, they will consider older information to provide context and background. It is imperative that your timeline is complete.
Lee Smith, of Tumwater, knew the history of her complaint was long; she had been documenting for more than three years. Yet, the information she provided in the complaint was for the previous 12 months. Unfortunately, the investigator noted that the limited facts did not meet the “preponderance of evidence” standard.
Mitchell took another approach.
“When I was writing the SECC, I was writing in a timeline,” Mitchell shared. “I tried to be focused and objective. I was very specific about dates, times and gaps in time.”
Mitchell advised to be matter-of-fact when writing the timeline.
“Being objective is difficult,” she noted, “because we are living it.”
Each event in your timeline of facts should be supported by a document. Mitchell leveraged emails, voicemails, phone records, government information, and district policies to support her allegations. Smith provided evaluations, IEPs and emails. Some additional documents that might be considered include:
1. Create an All About Me and IEP at a Glance. Send these one-page summaries, via email, to every adult working with your child.
2. Begin a journal and capture notes about your child related to school. These can provide excellent context for behaviors and attitudes.
3. Save classroom, district and state assessment reports, especially if your child is meeting grade-level learning objectives.
These documents can support your claim, while also potentially disproving the school district’s response.
OSPI, and any other state educational agency, will want to know your thoughts on how to solve the problem. For example, if key agreements were not included in the IEP, state that you want these items revisited in a new IEP meeting. If you want staff to implement accommodations, request training on your child’s IEP. District-level remedies include staff training, policy review and revision, and classroom and school audits.
Mitchell is optimistic that the remedies she requested will, if granted, benefit many families in NTPS. She has requested a corrective action plan that would include parents as partners in reviewing and clarifying district-wide discipline policy.
While OSPI has 60 days to provide an SECC decision, Mitchell learned first-hand the power of filing a complaint. Within a few hours of filing, the district reached out to begin evaluating her son for special education.
The online oracle says … AI is an amazing tool to strengthen your SECC. Part 1 of this series improved your writing. In Part 2, I gave a prompt to improve your documentation. With this prompt, the virtual visigoth will improve your understanding of the "preponderance of evidence” you need to convince an investigator. Make sure to redact all identifying information, such as your child’s name, date of birth, school name and city. All of that needs to be deleted before copying-pasting into a chatbot.
Act as an investigator for written state complaints in special education. You are an expert in WAC 392-172A and the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, and you often do not find violations because the “preponderance of evidence” standard has not been met in the complaint.
Read through the allegation and timeline of facts in the draft complaint I will give you. Your task is to coach me to make the complaint more convincing to you. Answer two questions: 1) What are three ways I can make my complaint more convincing? 2) What additional information and/or documentation would convince you to find a violation? Here is the narrative you will analyze: (copy-paste your allegation and timeline here)
Ask an Advocate your questions about SECCs! Email me!
This column is written by Shannon Sankstone, she is an Olympia-based special education advocate and the owner of Advocacy Unlocked. She may be reached at ShannonSankstone@theJOLTnews.com.
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