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Office of Special Education
IMPARTIAL HEARING REPORTING SYSTEM



Opening a Case

Relevant New York State Regulation(s):

  •  8 § NYCRR Part 200.5(j)(3)
  •  8 § NYCRR Part 201.11

What is a Case?

Case Maintenance Data Entry Screen

When a school district receives a request for an impartial hearing this request must be entered in the Impartial Hearing Reporting System (IHRS). A case refers to all information and actions associated with a particular request for an impartial hearing as recorded in IHRS.

All data entry in IHRS is performed or initiated on the Case Maintenance screen. Each case is assigned a unique numeric Case Identifier (ID). All case information is linked to the ID.

Note: The entire Case Maintenance form is longer than the display area. Use the vertical scroll bar on the right of the screen to view information at the bottom of the form.

What is an Expedited Case?

An impartial hearing request dealing with discipline issues pursuant to Section 201.11 is an expedited hearing request. Expedited cases have much shorter time lines and the time lines are based on school days.

When initially entering an expedited request in IHRS, the school district calculates and enters the compliance date. The school district must calculate the expedited compliance date because it is based on school days and the district has the most accurate information about their school calendar.

The compliance date is 30 school days from the date the district received the expedited request. When calculating the compliance date, day number one is the first school day after the receipt of the request. This date may be changed, if necessary (e.g. due to an unplanned school closing), by submitting a data change request. Please see the section Data Change Requests in Getting Started: IHRS Basics for more information.

The impartial hearing officer appointed to the case receives an email notification with the expedited compliance date calculated by the school district.

What is a CSE Case?

An impartial hearing request filed on behalf of a school age child is considered a Committee on Special Education or CSE case. The initial time line for a CSE impartial hearing is 45 calendar days.

What is a CPSE Case?

An impartial hearing request filed on behalf of a preschool age child is considered a Committee on Preschool Special Education or CPSE case. The initial time line for a CPSE impartial hearing is 30 calendar days.

When to Enter a Case

The district is expected to enter at least the required information immediately upon receipt of the request for impartial hearing.

How to Enter a Case

Required Fields

There are certain pieces of information that are required in order to open a case in IHRS. The data entry fields for these required items are marked with an asterisk *. The fields required to create a new case in IHRS include:

  • * Institution
  • * Student Placement
  • * Request Date
  • * Student Classification
  • * Requestor
  • * Case Type
  • * Expedited?
  • * District Representative Name
  • * Expedited Compliance Date
 

District Representative Phone, Extension and Email are not required fields however, they are helpful in facilitating communication between the district and the Office of Special Education about the case.

See Steps to Initially Open a Case in this section for more information on required fields.

Additional Fields

The following information is usually not completed when entering a new case but may be added at a later time if relevant to the case:

Field Name

Description

Able to Modify Field Once Saved?

District Representative Phone

The district representative’s phone number.
(You can type only ten (10) characters in a telephone number field. Type only the 10-digit phone number - do not type dashes or parentheses.

Yes

District Rep Extension

The district representative’s extension (if applicable).

Yes

District Rep Email

The district representative’s email address.

Yes

District Case Number

If the district uses case numbers, the case number the district has assigned. This field should never contain any personally identifiable information regarding the case.

Yes

Pendency Placement

The results of the IHO’s pendency order for the placement of the child during the hearing. See Maintaining a Case: Hearings: What is a Hearing? for more information regarding pendency.

Yes

Change in Expedited?

Indicates whether there is a change in the expedited status during an open case.
Note: District is not able to enter data in this field and must submit a data change request to change the expedited status of a case.

No

Pendency Order Date

The date the action, defined in the pendency order, is to be completed.

Yes

Pendency Appealed?

Whether the pendency decision was appealed. (The default value is blank).

Yes

Transcript Sent Out Date

The date the case record was sent out for transcription. District use only.

Yes

Transcript Received Date

The date the final transcript was received. District use only.

Yes

Actual Record Closed Date

The date final briefs are due and submitted to the Impartial Hearing Officer (IHO) by the parties. Found in the decision rendered by the IHO.

Yes

Case Closure Type

The type of closure. Required to close case.

No

Case Closed Date

The date the case was closed. Required to close the case

No

Compliance Date

The date the decision is due from the IHO. Calculated by IHRS for CSE and CPSE cases, entered by the district for expedited cases.

No

Decision Received By SED Date

The date the written decision is received by the State Education Department. Entered by SED

No


Steps to Initially Open a Case

Step 1.

Log onto IHRS.

Step 2.

Click on Case Maintenance under IHRS Data Entry on the IHRS Main Menu.

  IHRS Main Menu: Case Maintenance Link

Step 3.

On the Case Maintenance Search screen, scroll down and click on the New button.

  Case Maintenance Search Screen: New Button

Step 4.

Enter the following information:


Required Field Name

Description

Able To Modify Field Once Saved?

* Institution

District’s twelve-digit institution code.

Yes

* Request Date

The date the district received the request for an impartial hearing. District policy determines this date.

No

* Requestor

Who requested the hearing.

No

* Expedited?

Indicate whether the case is expedited: the default value is “No.”

No

Expedited Compliance Date (* required if “Y” is indicated in the “Expedited?” field above)

The date the decision is due from the IHO on the expedited hearing.

Yes

* Student Placement

The student’s placement on the current IEP.

Yes

* Student Classification

The student’s classification on the current IEP.

Yes

* Case Type

The type of case (CSE, CPSE).

No

* District Representative Name

The person who the Office of Special Education will contact regarding case data and case activity in IHRS.

No

 

Step 5.

Take a look at your data to make sure it is accurate.


Step 6.

Click Save.


Step 7.

A “Success!” message appears at the top of the screen indicating that the case has been successfully entered. Please take note of the Case Identifier number automatically assigned to the case. If this does not occur, the resulting error message will provide guidance about next steps.


How to Find a Case

There are two ways to find cases in IHRS:

  1. Case Maintenance
    • Under IHRS Institution Data Entry on the IHRS Main Menu
    • Use to find a case when you want to add new information.

    You can only search for cases from your own district.

  2. Case Query - Detail
    • Under IHRS Case Information on the IHRS Main Menu
    • Use to find cases when you just want to view information
    • Has more search criteria
    • Use to do basic data analysis (See Basic Data Analysis in Getting Started for more information.)
IHRS Main Menu: Case Maintenance and Case Query Links

Steps to Find and Update a Case Using Case Maintenance

Step 1.

Log onto IHRS.


Step 2.

Click on Case Maintenance under IHRS Institution Data Entry on the IHRS Main Menu.


Step 3.

On the Case Maintenance Search screen enter your search criteria by entering values in one or more of the search fields. Type complete values (i.e., the complete institution name); select from the list or use the % wildcard* to enter search criteria.

Case Maintenance Data Entry Screen

* If you are not sure of the spelling, you can use the % wild card. The wild card represents any value.

Enter this:

To find this:

%Park%

Hyde Park
West Park City
Parkersburg

%Park

Hyde Park

Park%

Parkersburg


Step 4.


Click Find. One of the following results will occur:

Search Result

Next Step

The search results window opens with a list of all cases that met the search criteria.

Review the list to find the case you want to open. Then go to Step 5.

You receive the message: “No Records Returned”.

No cases met the search criteria:

  1. Click Query to return to the search criteria window.

  2. Revise your search by modifying the search criteria as necessary and click Find.

For more information on entering search criteria see Getting Started: Using Basic Data Analysis.


Step 5.

Click on the Case Identifier of the case you wish to open to view or modify. The Case Maintenance screen will open for the selected case.


Step 6.

Add or update the information.

Case Information to Add or Update

For More Information Go To:

Student Information
District Representative Information

See Required Fields in this section

Pendency Information

Maintaining a Case: Hearings: What is a Hearing? and also Additional Fields in this section

Transcript Sent Out/Received Date
Decision Received by SED Date

See Additional Fields in this section

IHO Contact and/or Appointment

Maintaining a Case: Appointing an IHO

Resolution Period

Maintaining a Case: Resolution Period

Amendments

Maintaining a Case: Amendments

Hearings

Maintaining a Case: Hearings

Case Issues

Maintaining a Case: Case Issues

Case Extensions

Maintaining a Case: Extensions

Case Closure Information and Actual Record Closed Date

Closing a Case


Step 7.


Take a look at your data to make sure it is accurate.


Step 8.

Click Save.


Step 9.

A “Success!” message appears at the top of the screen indicating that the case has been successfully updated. If this does not occur, the resulting error message will provide guidance about next steps.

Note: If you do not receive either a “Success” message or a resulting error message click Refresh on your browser’s tool bar to confirm your data was entered.