One powerful search
If you have tried to find an older BSEA decision online, you probably found the process very time-consuming. You have to navigate to a different website to check a regulation, and yet another to read a DESE guidance.
A few years back, I created a searchable database for myself. A central database where I could quickly and easily find important BSEA decisions and rulings. I created a program on my laptop and relied on my personal offline database for legal research.
When former BSEA hearing officer Bill Crane joined Massachusetts Advocates for Children, a conversation started up about how difficult it is to search online.
As the idea of bringing the database online evolved, I thought it might be helpful to track the number of views for each BSEA decision and ruling. This will help the search process, bringing the most popular searches to the top. I have started to add tags, so the special education specific terms (and endless acronyms) won’t trip-up the search algorithm. I also converted everything to HTML, meaning there’s nothing to download – every word is searchable and easy to navigate.
I plan to update the search algorithm and increase the site speed over time, adding new features that will help our community. You can read about the current features (v 1.0) here, and learn about the boolean search options here. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me if you have ideas, questions, or comments at daniel@perlmanlegal.com.
Dan
Law Office of Daniel S. Perlman, LLC