Before The
State Of Wisconsin
DIVISION OF HEARINGS AND APPEALS

ORDER OF DISMISSAL

The Parties to this proceeding are:

On February 9, 2001, a prehearing telephone conference was held. Participating were the following: the Student, [Student] (date of birth xxxxx); Mary Gerbig, counsel for the District; William J. Joy, Assistant Superintendent for the District; and Mr. [Father], the Student's father. Present also was a Hmong interpreter to provide interpreting services for the Father.

Before the prehearing telephone conference, counsel for the District had filed and served a written request that the due process hearing request be dismissed because it had been made by the sixteen-year-old Student and not by a parent.

During the prehearing telephone conference, I informed the Student and the Father that I would grant the District's request to dismiss unless a parent was then asserting a request for a due process hearing on behalf of the Student. The Father indicated he was not then prepared to make such a request, and wished to have additional time to consult with his wife on the matter before deciding whether to make a due process hearing request.

After further discussion, I then informed the parties that I was granting the District's request to dismiss.

The due process hearing request bears only the signature of the Student. The Student's parents have not made a written request. When given the opportunity during the prehearing conference to formally make a request for a due process hearing, the Father was not then prepared to do so.

A "parent" [defined in Wis. Stat. § 115.76(12)] has standing to request a due process hearing on behalf of a child under the age of eighteen. Wis. Stat. § 115.80(1)(a). When a child reaches the age of eighteen, the right to request a due process hearing transfers to the child. Wis. Stat. § 115.807. No person with authority to request a due process hearing has done so here. The Student lacks legal standing to request a due process hearing because he is under the age of eighteen, so this matter should be dismissed. Matter of Student v. Wisconsin State Department of Corrections Ethan Allen School, LEA-99-015 (http://www.dpi.state.wi.us/dpi/dlsea/een/lea99015.html).

During the prehearing conference the Father indicated that he understood that he had the right to request a due process hearing on behalf of his minor son. A representative for the District also indicated that immediately after the hearing the District intended to review with the Father his hearing rights under the special education laws. Representatives of the District also indicated that actions were currently underway addressing matters raised in the due process hearing request and which could lead to resolution of any dispute that may develop between the District and the parents.

For the foregoing reasons, it is ordered that the due process hearing request filed by the Student, [Student], is dismissed for lack of standing.

Dated at Milwaukee, Wisconsin on February 12, 2001.