Michigan

The published process

Placement during a dispute

The notice’s own section heading is “The Child’s Placement While the Due Process Complaint and Hearing are Pending”. Its text states: "once a due process complaint is filed with the MDE and received by the other party, your child must remain in his or her current educational placement during the resolution process time period, and while waiting" (a running page header interrupts the sentence in the source PDF) "for the decision of any impartial due process hearing or court proceeding, unless you and the State or school district agree otherwise." "If the due process complaint involves an application for initial admission to public school, your child, with your consent, must be placed in the regular public school program until the completion of all such proceedings." — Notice, The Child’s Placement While the Due Process Complaint and Hearing are Pending.

Independent evaluation at public expense

"you have the right to obtain an independent educational evaluation (IEE) of your child if you disagree with the evaluation of your child that was obtained by your school district." "If you submit a written request for an IEE of your child at public expense, your school district must respond, in writing, to the request within seven calendar days of the receipt of the request, indicating the district’s intent to either: (a) provide the IEE at public expense; or (b) file a due process complaint to request a hearing to show that it’s evaluation of your child is appropriate." "You are entitled to only one IEE of your child at public expense each time your school district conducts an evaluation of your child with which you disagree." (Notice, Independent Educational Evaluations) The seven-calendar-day response window is shorter than the federal model form’s usual ten-day window.

Who may be present, and what record is made

Any party to a due process hearing "has the right to:" "Be accompanied and advised by a lawyer and/or persons with special knowledge or training regarding the problems of children with disabilities;" "Present evidence and confront, cross-examine, and compel the attendance of witnesses;" "Obtain a written, or, at your option, electronic, word-for-word record of the hearing; and" "Obtain written, or, at your option, electronic findings of fact and decisions." As a parent, you "must be given the right to:" "Have your child present;" "Open the hearing to the public; and" "Have the record of the hearing, the findings of fact and decisions provided to you at no cost." (Notice, Hearing Rights / Parental rights at hearings) Recording of IEP Team meetings, as distinct from due process hearings, is not stated in the sources reviewed; the notice was searched throughout for "record," "tape," and "audio," and none of its IEP-related sections address parent recording of a meeting.

The three rows above answer the questions an experienced adviser raises first, from the state’s own published documents, or record that a question is not answered in them.

Timelines, as stated in the sources

All quoted; none calculated. From the Procedural Safeguards Notice except where noted.

On the difference in timelines, stated together. "While staff of the MDE generally must resolve a State complaint within a 60-calendar-day timeline, unless the timeline is properly extended, an ALJ must hear a due process complaint (if not resolved through a resolution meeting or through mediation) and issue a written decision within 45-calendar days after the end of the resolution period, as described in this document under the heading, Resolution Process, unless the ALJ grants a specific extension of the timeline at your request or the school district's request." (Notice, Difference Between Due Process Hearing Complaint and State Complaint Procedures)

On filing a State complaint. "The complaint must allege a violation that occurred not more than one year prior to" the State receiving it. The MDE "will include in its State complaint procedures a time limit of 60 calendar days after a complaint is filed" to investigate, allow both parties to respond, review the information, and issue a decision. (Notice, Minimum State Complaint Procedures)

On filing a due process complaint. "The due process complaint must allege a violation that happened not more than two years before you or the school district knew or should have known about the alleged action that forms the basis of the due process complaint." This timeline does not apply where "The school district specifically misrepresented that it had resolved the issues identified in the complaint" or withheld required information. (Notice, Filing a Due Process Complaint)

On the resolution meeting and period. "The resolution meeting must be convened within 15 calendar days after the due process complaint is filed with the MDE, and received by the school district. The due process hearing cannot begin until the resolution meeting is conducted." "If the school district has not resolved the due process complaint to your satisfaction within 30 calendar days of the receipt of the due process complaint (during the time period for the resolution process), the due process hearing may occur." "The 45-calendar-day timeline for issuing a final decision begins at the expiration of the 30-calendar-day resolution period, with certain exceptions for adjustments made to the 30-calendar-day resolution period, as described below." (Notice, Resolution meeting / Resolution period)

On the written settlement agreement. "If a resolution to the dispute is reached at the resolution meeting, you and the" school district must enter into a legally binding, signed agreement. (Notice, Resolution Settlement Agreement)

On the hearing decision. "The MDE must ensure that not later than 45 calendar days after the expiration of the 30-calendar-day period for resolution meetings or, not later than 45 calendar" days after an adjusted resolution period, a final decision is reached and mailed to the parties. (Notice, Hearing Decisions)

What any of this means for a particular situation is for the agency and its processes to determine.

Change log

Aug 25, 2026 · Page created. Captured first-party: the MDE Dispute Resolution Options overview page (HTML, fetched directly, no date published on the page itself) and the Procedural Safeguards Notice from the MDE Office of Special Education (PDF, header states "Last updated: 10/16/18", text extracted in full with pdftotext). Findings recorded rather than smoothed: (1) the notice states a seven-calendar-day (not the federal model form’s usual ten-day) school-district response window for an independent educational evaluation request; (2) recording of IEP Team meetings, as distinct from due process hearings, is not addressed anywhere in the notice, searched specifically for this; (3) no parent training and information center is named with contact detail in either source; the overview page names "Michigan Alliance for Families" only as a resource-link title, without address or phone; (4) Michigan’s structure splits dispute resolution across three separate entities — MDE’s Office of Special Education for complaints, the Michigan Office of Administrative Hearings and Rules (MOAHR) for due process hearings, and Special Education Mediation Services (SEMS) for mediation and IEP facilitation — a three-way split more fragmented than the two-office (PA, MD) or single-agency (TX, KY) patterns seen elsewhere in this project. Capture pending: the Dispute Resolution Options PDF and its translations, the State Complaints Procedures and Model Forms PDF and translations, the State Complaint Model Form and translations, the Due Process Complaint Procedures PDF and translations, the Model Due Process Complaint/Request for Hearing Form and translations, and the Resolution Meeting PDF. Internet Archive captures: to be added. Reviewer: Carrie Schluter, reviewed 2026-08-25. Corrections on the record in this log: hello@fieldassembly.net.