Search Special Education Decisions and Orders
Search decisions and orders for Special Education cases handled by the Office of Administrative Hearings (OAH). Links to the different databases and Instructions are provided below.
Use the links shown on the left to access Orders or Decisions (after hearing.) Decisions by Settlement are listed on the Decisions by Settlement webpage herein which may be accessed using the link below. See below for more information on searching databases.
Additional information on Orders and Sample Orders, Decisions by Settlement, and Search Tips may be accessed by clicking on the corresponding title below.
Special Education decisions issued from 1993 through June 30, 2005, are maintained by the California Department of Education (CDE). To view these decisions on decisions issued by CDE 1993 to July 1, 2005.
Search Links:
List Serve
OAH maintains a list called “ListServe” which allows OAH to send to interested people via email copies of our decisions issued each month, as well as the occasional announcement. If you wish to be added to this list please click on the blue “Add to ListServe” rectangular “button” on the left side of this page.
Orders and Sample Order
Please note that new search capabilities are currently pending for the orders page and will be implemented at a future date.
OAH's orders database contains all orders issued in OAH cases since 2013, except those that contain personally identifiable information ("PII") or generic orders such as Scheduling Orders.
Sample orders are available on the orders page listed by type of order on the "Sample Orders" page.
See Search Instructions (on this page) for general instructions on how to search for orders relevant to a particular issue.
Decisions (After Hearing)
OAH’s decisions database contains all OAH decisions issued after a hearing in OAH cases since 2013, except those that contain personally identifiable information.
See Search Instructions (on this page) for general instructions on how to search decisions for specific information.
OAH's Decisions by Settlement
A “decision by settlement” is an agreement negotiated by the parties after a case has been filed with OAH. Sometimes the parties will reach an agreement before or during the hearing and will request that OAH issue a “decision by settlement” upon the agreed upon terms. These decisions are available on this website at Decisions by Settlement.
Search Instructions
OAH’s Orders and Decisions search feature is based on the “Boolean” search tools. These search tools will operate for both orders and decisions.
OAH's search tool uses specific words and symbols, such as the asterisk (*), to find specific words or phrases in a document within a database. It can also be used to exclude documents that contain a specific word. The OAH search function is a simplified version of the tools shown below.
Quotation Marks - "".
Quotation marks tell the search function to find whatever word or phrase is inside the quotation marks, such as “statute of limitations”. The search function will only find the exact word inside the quotation marks. For example: “autism” will not find a decision or order that has the word “autistic” if the decision does not also use the word “autistic.”
Parentheses – ().
Parentheses groups words together. This allows you to ask for different options. For example, if you want to find an order or decision that has either “assessment” or “evaluation” you would have the search “(assessment OR evaluation)”. See also, the “Grouping" section below.
Include Terms - AND
"AND" tells the search that all the connected words must appear in your results. For example, "assessment AND autism" will result in decisions or orders that have both "assessment" and "autism".
Exclude Term - NOT
The NOT tool allows a search for a word in a decision or order when you want to exclude decisions or orders that have another word. For example, a search of "autism not private" would result in decisions or orders that have the word autism" but do not have the word "private".
Alternative Words – OR
If you want decisions or orders that either “autism” OR “autistic” then you would use the search term “autism” OR “autistic”.
Variations of a Word (also called Wildcard) Tools - * or ?
The * searches for variations of a word root including different endings or no additional characters at all. For example, “assess*” will search for “assess”, “assessor,” “assessment” and “assessments”.
The ? is a single-character wildcard that replaces a single unknown alternative character. For example, “wom?n” will result in documents with “woman” or “women”.
Grouping
By combining these tools you can create more complex searches. For example, if you want to find a decision or order that is about a student that had autism and was enrolled in a specific school district (Sacramento is used in the below example) and the decision or order involved a question of manifestation determination you might try the search shown below:
Example: (“autis*” AND (“manifestation” OR “MDR”) AND “Sacramento”)
Search the Decisions Database
Search the Orders page
To Receive Copies of Decisions Via Email
Click the button below to submit your request to be added to OAH's Special Education Division's Decisions emailing list. Be sure to include your name and email address at which you wish to receive copies of the decisions.
See Information on OAH's Privacy Policy at https://www.dgs.ca.gov/Privacy