Newsroom

The Office of Administrative Hearings is pleased to announce a new online survey for participants in Special Education and Lanterman Act mediations and hearings.  In an effort to make the survey more convenient, the new process was developed to make the survey more efficient, cost effective, and secure method of collecting information. 

The Office of Administrative Hearings will send an email to participants with a link and an identifying password to access the survey.  Participants click on the link provided, enter the password and complete the survey online.  If a participant does not provide an email address, a hard copy  of the survey  will be sent via U.S. mail. 

As always, we appreciate your participation in our survey.

The Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) maintains a List of Free or Reduced Cost Attorneys and Advocates that is available to the public. In order to provide current information to help the parents of children with exceptional needs locate free or reduced cost representation, OAH is updating the list.

If you wish to be included on OAH’s List of Free or Reduced Cost Attorneys and Advocates, you need to submit an application. If you are already on the list and wish to remain on it, you must submit a renewal application by November 1, 2011. The application and instructions are located at http://www.dgs.ca.gov/oah/SpecialEducation.aspx.

Individuals with substantial experience in public works construction contracting and arbitration are invited to apply to serve on the Public Works Contract Arbitration (PWCA) Panel of Arbitrators.  See PWCA Arbitrator Information for more information.

The Laguna Hills office of the Special Education Division was closed in December 2010. The Special Education Division now has a San Diego Special Education office. Two administrative law judges are working in the San Diego OAH office, while the presiding administrative law judge and two other administrative law judges are teleworking from home offices and are affiliated with the San Diego Special Education office. OAH, however, is continuing to provide the same level of service of due process hearings and mediation services to Orange County and the surrounding region as it has in the past.

Please continue to send all filings to:

Office of Administrative Hearings
Attention: Special Education Division
2349 Gateway Oaks Drive, Suite 200
Sacramento, CA 95833

Telephone: 916.263.0880
Faxination: 916.376.6319

Please note that the San Diego Office of Administrative Hearings has moved to a new suite in the same building on June 7, 2010.

The new address:

Office of Administrative Hearings
1350 Front Street, Suite 3005
San Diego, CA 92101

Child Support Services Hearings

Commencing January 1, 2010, the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH) will be conducting all state-level hearings in the Complaint Resolution Program for the Department of Child Support Services (DCSS). The DCSS and OAH entered into an interagency agreement for this purpose. Pursuant to the interagency agreement, hearings will be conducted within 45 days of the date that OAH receives the case documents sent to them by DCSS. In order to assist in expediting the hearings for cases that have been collected by the DCSS thus far, OAH will initially conduct all state hearings by telephone.

Participants in these hearings should read the requirements for hearings conducted before OAH under the DCSS page.

The Office of Administrative Hearings has recently updated its procedures to assist parties in planning for teacher reduction in force cases.  For further information, see Teacher Reduction in Force Proceedings Home.  Pursuant to the Governor's Executive Order S-13-09 requiring furloughs for state offices, the Office of Administrative Hearings will be closed and will not schedule teacher reduction in force hearings on the first three Fridays in April (April 1, 8, and 15, 2011).