Hearings and Appeals: Filing Procedures

• Briefs are generally limited to a maximum of 15 pages unless the case is exceptionally complex. The judge or hearing official has discretion as to whether to allow longer filings.
• If filing electronically via the OES, parties do not have to follow up with a hard copy to OHA. Please consult OHA’s Filing Guide for specifics on how to file electronically or via other means.
• All exhibits submitted by the United States Department of Education should be marked numerically after the symbol ED, such as ED-1, ED-2, etc., and those of Respondent should be marked numerically after the symbol R, such as R-1, R-2, etc. All pages of each exhibit should be consecutively numbered. 
• Exhibits should be submitted on 8½ x 11 paper in booklet format, tabbed, and bound firmly along the left margin. The binding should obscure no part of the text of the exhibit. The brief should not be attached to the exhibit booklet. Three ring loose-leaf binders, binder clips, and rubber band or string bindings may not be used.
• The parties should refer to the case docket number in all correspondence. All submissions relating to the proceeding shall be in the form of an original and one copy to our office, with simultaneous service of an additional copy upon all opposing parties. A party should include as exhibits any references to materials other than published statutes, regulations, and decisions. Consistent with the rules for citation contained in THE BLUEBOOK: A UNIFORM SYSTEM OF CITATION, cite all federal regulations to the Code of Federal Regulations (C.F.R.) by title, section, and year. Cite to the most recent edition of the C.F.R. only when appropriate.
• A continuance of the schedule provided in the Order Governing Proceedings will be given only in cases where good cause is shown. Upon request, either party may file a reply brief.

OHA's E-filing System (OES)

OHA’s web-based E-filing System, OES, is a PDF-based filing system that is easy to use and provides a secure and efficient method for transmitting data electronically. 

OHA’s E-filing System (OES) utilizes standard web-based screens and prompts to enable you to submit documents in PDF format directly to OHA within minutes. When creating your PDF documents, you choose the tool, process, and workflow with which you author your documents, convert them to standard PDF files, and then submit them to OHA’s secure servers.

OES may be used to submit documents in the following types of cases:

• Higher Education Act cases (Subpart G and Subpart H proceedings)
• General Education Provisions Act (GEPA) cases
• Impact Aid cases
• Salary Overpayment cases

Please note that E-filing is not permitted yet in Civil Rights cases. Documents in Civil Rights cases must be filed by hard copy via hand-delivery, private courier or U.S. mail.

To Access OES: 

1. An E-filer will be required to register as a user and obtain approval from OHA before E-filing any document. 
2. An E-filer will complete an online registration form. 
3. Once approval is given, an email will be sent to the E-filer within 24 business hours granting access to the E-filing system. A valid email address is required to register as an E-filer. Requests for E-filing accounts should be submitted only during business hours (8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. ET). Documents may be filed at any time. Please review the E-Filing User Guide (see below) for information on how to complete the registration process and how to E-file.

E-filers will be able to see all documents filed in a particular case including documents filed by the opposing party once it is accepted for E-filing. Once a document is accepted, an E-filer may view and/or print the document.

E-Filing User Guide

Document Requirements for E-Filing

• Format: Documents must be converted to Portable Document Format (*.pdf). Multiple PDF files may not be filed in a .zip file.
• System Limits: There is no limit on the number of documents that may be uploaded in a case. The maximum file size is 50 MB (smaller files are preferred whenever possible). A file that exceeds 50 MB should be optimized to reduce the size or separated into parts and uploaded as multiple e-filings.
• Consolidated Cases: Unless two or more cases are officially consolidated by court order, any document applying in more than one case must be separately filed in each case. If cases are officially consolidated, a document may be filed in the lead case only.
• Documents must be virus-free: You are responsible for taking all reasonable steps to prevent sending any material that contains computer viruses. All submissions using OES automatically will be deleted by the system and the E-filer notified. Rejection of a filing because it contains a virus will not excuse a late filing and is considered to be a user problem, not a technical failure of OHA’s system.
• E-filings Must Be Timely:
  • E-filings must comport with all applicable time requirements including those set by regulation and orders issued by the assigned judge or hearing official in your case.
  • Any document filed using OES shall be considered filed with OHA on the date and time it is successfully received. A document filed before midnight will be recorded as received on that date.
  • A failure to timely file or serve a document will not be excused on the basis of any technical difficulties encountered by the E-filer such as a claim that transmission could not be accomplished because OHA’s web server was offline or unavailable for any other reason.
  • A party who files a document electronically shall have the same responsibility as a person filing a document in the conventional manner for ensuring that the document is properly filed, complete, and readable.

Privacy Issues

Federal law requires federal agencies to restrict disclosure of personally identifiable information (PII) that otherwise would be made available to the public pursuant to the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), 5 U.S.C. § 552. PII includes social security numbers, dates of birth, personal financial account numbers, and home addresses of students or individuals. If PII is neither relevant nor necessary to the case, OHA requests that it not be included in any filing. If such information is otherwise necessary and relevant, OHA recommends that the filing party remove or partially redact the PII. For example, if social security numbers must be included, use only the last four digits of the numbers. Alternatively, an arbitrary student numbering system to identify students at issue may be utilized.

Alternate Means of Electronic Submission

For the convenience of a party, all exhibits and pleadings may be combined and submitted on an optical disc (CD-ROM or DVD-ROM). The documents on optical disc must be in PDF format. The optical disc must be served upon the opposing party. A party should contact OHA before submitting a DVD-ROM.

Technical Issues

A user’s technical problems such as a lack of internet access will not excuse an untimely filing. If you wait until after close of business to attempt to E-file and encounter problems, no one will be available to assist you. If technical problems occur on OES or it is otherwise unavailable to receive E-filings, notice will be posted on OHA’s website as soon as possible. If OES is down or experiencing technical difficulties, please contact the System Administrator.

Service to other parties

Acceptance of an E-filing will constitute service to the other party(ies) in the case if these parties are registered users of OES. In that instance, parties will not need to file a certificate of service, however parties should still submit a service page listing the other parties in the case. If a party is not a registered E-filer, service must be made via traditional means such as hard copy via U.S. mail, hand-delivery, private courier, or facsimile transmission. In this instance, you must also follow up via hard copy to OHA if the other party is not a registered E-filer. Only in HEA and Overpayment cases, if all parties are registered E-filers, will you have the option of not following up with a hard copy to OHA. In all other cases (i.e. GEPA and Impact Aid), an E-filer must also send a hard copy to OHA.

Accessibility

The Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) is committed to making the content on this website accessible to individuals with disabilities. Section 508 of the Rehabilitation Act (29 U.S.C. § 794d) requires federal agencies to provide individuals with disabilities equal access to electronic information and data. Section 508 standards are the technical requirements and criteria that are used to measure compliance with the Rehabilitation Act.

This website meets the 508 standards and is accessible to users with disabilities, including keyboard-only users and those with visual and cognitive impairments. Most of the documents on OHA’s website and in OES are in in Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format (PDF). The PDF document format is used to preserve the content and layout of the original hard copy document. Unless a PDF document is properly formatted for access by screen-reading software, a user is unable to make the screen-reading software speak the contents of a PDF document.

OHA has made every effort to ensure that our PDF files are accessible and can be read with screen readers. These files were tagged at a high level using an automated process. While this method is not exact, it dramatically increases the accessibility of the files as compared to an untagged version.

The decisions issued and/or posted by the Office of Hearings and Appeals (OHA) meet the accessibility requirements issued by the Department in accordance with Section 508 guidance, but if you are having trouble with accessibility for any particular decision, please contact us for assistance at OFO_OHA@ed.gov.

E-Filing Using OES and Tips for Creating Accessible PDF Documents

OHA requires parties to upload only PDF documents to OES. While accessibility for OES documents is not mandatory, we strongly prefer that all documents in OES be accessible to all, and encourage litigants to make their PDF uploads 508 compliant. To ensure that documents are accessible, the content creator can use the formatting and layout options within Microsoft Word and Adobe Acrobat Pro.

• We strongly recommend that documents are made 508 compliant in Word before saving them as PDFs, as it is easier to format a document properly in Word.
• When creating a PDF from scanned hard copies, you must convert the scanned images of text to searchable content using optical character recognition.
• In Word, use headings to structure and organize your document. Ensure that all heading styles are applied in a hierarchal manner, such as Heading 1, Heading 2, etc.
• Insert alternative text for images, tables, and charts and graphs. Also, include captions for charts and graphs.
• Do not format images and other objects to be floating, but rather in line with text.
• Do not use tabs or spaces to create columns. Instead, use the Page Layout/Columns command.
• Use descriptive hypertext links.
• Be cautious as to the colors you choose. Some colors and color combinations can be difficult to read, especially for someone who has color blindness. Provide sufficient color contrast.

For users of Microsoft Office products, Microsoft has free help articles on how to create accessible Office documents. For users of Adobe products, Adobe has free help articles on how to create accessible PDF documents.

We recommend use of the Microsoft Office Accessibility Checker to identify problems in your Word document. It points out things such as missing alt text, missing table row headers, unclear hyperlink text, and more. The Accessibility Checker also provides instructions on how to fix any items that have been flagged as inaccessible.

To use the Microsoft Accessibility Checker:

1. Click on the File tab.
2. Click on Info.
3. Click on the Check for Issues button.
4. From the menu, select: Check Accessibility. An Inspection Results pane will appear. It provides a list of errors and warnings that it found in the document.
5. Fix the errors and warnings as appropriate.

Adobe also has an Accessibility Wizard to check the PDF document for accessibility. 

To use the Accessibility Wizard in Adobe Acrobat Pro:

1. Click Tools from the upper right corner.
2. Click Action Wizard > Make Accessible from the sidebar.
3. By default, the action runs on the currently open document. Select Add Files to select additional files or a folder to run the action on.
4. Click Start button. This will walk you through a series of steps to enhance the accessibility of your document.

All submissions should be sent to the following address:

Office of Hearings and Appeals
U.S. Department of Education
400 Maryland Avenue, S.W. Suite 3A102
Washington, DC 20202-4533

Individuals or private messengers filing in person are required to submit to a security screening process to gain entrance to the building and will require an escort to OHA’s offices.