What's involved for Parents
Scheduling the Hearing
If your reference falls within the Tribunal’s jurisdiction, we will send you a letter informing you that your reference has been registered. We will also send the Education Authority copies of all the documents you have sent us and invite them to respond.
At this point we will also set a date for your hearing so that you can start to prepare your hearing.
This date will only be changed in very exceptional circumstances, You will normally have 4 weeks (20 working days) to prepare your Case Statement, unless, your reference is about the Education Authority's failure to prepare a plan within the timescales, in which case you will have 3 weeks (15 working days). There could also be a request which results in an order to shorten the case statement period.
The hearing will generally take place about 3 weeks after the end of the case statement period.
Case Statements
In most cases, the case statement period will be 30 working days. The parent or young person normally has 20 working days and the Education Authority have the remaining 10 working days to consider if there are further documents they wish to include or if they want to submit witness statements or a statement of arguments, known as a case statement. The Education Authority have the final 10 working days to respond to the parent's reference, as any documents submitted will be copied to the Education Authority.
If there is any relevant up-to-date information or written reports you can send them with your case statement. If you think your original reference gives us enough information and you have no further comments to make, you do not need to send a case statement. However there is a requirement for the Education Authority to respond. The Authority’s response must say whether it opposes the reference, it must state why and provide evidence to support this.
Once the case statement period has ended we will send you the ‘bundle’. This contains all the information provided by both parties, as well as the original reference and any preliminary decisions or directions made by the convener. These bundles are also sent to the Education Authority and to the Tribunal members to help everyone prepare prior to the Hearing.