California OAH special education order · July 21, 2017
Order Setting Aside Order to Show Cause
OAH Case No. 2017060361 · ALJ Peter Paul Castillo
OAH set aside its order to show cause against Student's advocate over a canceled mediation, finding her failure to notify OAH was an inadvertent oversight.
This case went to decision
Los Angeles Unified School District v. Student: Los Angeles Unified proves its psychoeducational, occupational therapy, and behavior assessments appropriate; no publicly funded IEEs ordered. (2017)
Summary
OAH issued an order to show cause asking why Student's advocate, Victoria Baca, should not pay OAH's costs after a scheduled July 11, 2017 mediation was canceled. She had filed a notice of representation the afternoon before without saying whether she would attend. In her response, she explained that she meant to cancel the mediation through a continuance request sent to the District but forgot to copy OAH. OAH found the failure was an inadvertent oversight, set aside the order to show cause, and vacated the hearing, while recommending she call OAH during business hours to cancel next-day mediations.
Why it matters
Representatives who need to cancel or continue a mediation should notify OAH directly, ideally by phone for last-minute changes, to avoid exposure to cost sanctions. A prompt, credible explanation of an honest mistake can lead OAH to drop a sanctions inquiry.
People named in the order
- Victoria Baca, Student's advocate
Topics
Full text of the order
Published text of the OAH order. Page headers and numbers from the original PDF have been dropped.
BEFORE THE
OFFICE OF ADMINISTRATIVE HEARINGS
STATE OF CALIFORNIA
In the Matter of:
PARENT ON BEHALF OF STUDENT, OAH Case No. 2017060361 v. ORDER SETTING ASIDE ORDER TO
SHOW CAUSE
LOS ANGELES UNIFIED SCHOOL
DISTRICT.
On July 13, 2017, the Office of Administrative Hearings issued an Order to Show Cause why Student’s advocate, Victoria Baca, should not pay OAH’s costs related to cancelation of the scheduled July 11, 2017, 1:30 p.m. mediation. The Order to Show Cause called for Student’s advocate to submit a response to OAH by July 18, 2017. OAH received the response on July 18, 2017.
The basis for the order to show cause was that on June 27, 2017, OAH issued a scheduling order, with the mediation date. On July 7, 2017, OAH left a telephone message with Student’s Parents to contact OAH to confirm their attendance at mediation. On July 10, 2017, at approximately 4:00 p.m., Ms. Baca filed with OAH a notice of representation of Student, which made no representation as to Ms. Baca’s attendance at the mediation scheduled for the next day.
Ms. Baca’s response stated that she intended to cancel the mediation with her continuance request that she sent to Los Angeles Unified School District, but inadvertently forgot to copy OAH when she transmitted the document on July 10, 2017. Therefore, Ms. Baca’s failure to contact OAH was through inadvertent oversight. However, it is also recommended that Ms. Baca contact OAH be telephone during business hours to cancel a mediation scheduled for the next day. Accordingly, the Order Show to Cause is set aside and the Order to Show Cause hearing for July 21, 2017, is vacated.
IT IS SO ORDERED.
DATE: July 21, 2017
PETER PAUL CASTILLO
Presiding Administrative Law Judge Office of Administrative Hearings