As a nonprofit publisher, Special Education Action relies on donors to support its coverage of special education news, lessons learned, and best practices.
Please donate today.
August 24, 2020: This article first published.
December 8, 2022: This article was updated to include this mention of Office of Civil Rights (OCR) November 30, 2022, letter of findings about Fairfax County Public Schools and OCR’s resolution agreement with FCPS. OCR’s findings cite this systemic complaint and make it clear that parents should have prevailed in 2020.
When rules are set in concrete for parents, but set in Jell-O for school divisions, it is hard to believe that children will ever have their rights implemented in full.
If the very state education agency that is mandated by law to ensure the rights of children, is in noncompliance itself—and bends its own rules for school divisions—who will ensure the rights of children are implemented in full?
August 21, 2020: This article first published.
December 7, 2022: This article was updated to include this mention of Office of Civil Rights November 30, 2022, letter of findings about Fairfax County Public Schools and OCR’s resolution agreement with FCPS. OCR’s findings cite this systemic complaint and make it clear that parents should have prevailed in 2020.
May 8, 2020, the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) received a systemic complaint against Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS).
VDOE issued its Notice of Complaint (NOC) May 18, 2018.
When you review the NOC, compare it with the parents’ complaint. You’ll see that the items VDOE picked to investigate aren’t the actual complaints, but information supporting the complaints.
As I wrote in Part I of this series, this is classic VDOE—and is a topic I’ll cover in depth at a later date.
File this under “accommodations that shouldn’t go wrong, but end up leaving you paralyzed in jaw-dropping numbness” at the absurdness surrounding incorrect interpretations and/or implementations, or both.
What is Strategic Seating?
It is just what it sounds like—strategic seating. It is a seat in the classroom that is chosen for a specific student, to help address his or her unique needs.
Who knew such a straight forward accommodation could become a nightmare?
August 20, 2020: This article first published.
December 6, 2022: This article was updated to include this mention of Office of Civil Rights November 30, 2022, letter of findings about Fairfax County Public Schools and OCR’s resolution agreement with FCPS. OCR’s findings cite this systemic complaint and make it clear that parents should have prevailed in 2020.
This is part one of a series based on a pending systemic complaint against Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) and based on the Virginia Department of Education’s (VDOE) handling of the complaint.
May 8, 2020, a complaint against FCPS was submitted to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE).
Five families and six children are listed on the complaint, which the parents asked VDOE to investigate at the systemic level.
In the three months since the complaint was submitted, VDOE and FCPS have exhibited how stacked the system is against the very children it is supposed to protect.
The United States Department of Education Office of Civil Rights investigates complaints against “public and private programs that receive Federal funds from the U.S. Department of Education”.
Read this article to learn how to file a complaint with OCR.
November 30, 2022, the Office of Civil Rights (OCR) announced Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is at fault for civil rights violations and OCR released the resolution reached following its investigation of FCPS.
This follows OCR’s January 12, 2021, announcement that it would investigate FCPS, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and Seattle Public Schools.
November 11, 2022: Article first published. November 19, 2022: Article updated to include items 1a, b, c, and d, which are cited on page four of USDOE’s September 1, 2022, letter to VDOE.
Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) remains in noncompliance of federal regulations.
September 1, 2022, United States Department of Education issued another a letter to VDOE that addresses VDOE’s continued failures. This letter was not provided to the public, nor were the similarly critical letters USDOE sent on February 8, 2022, and March 16, 2022. All three letters were obtained via Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. Special Education Action received the September 1, 2022, letter yesterday, November 10, 2022.
I forgot about President George W. Bush’s focus on ending the “soft bigotry of low expectations” until I read this week’s Washington Post obituary for Michael Gerson, the speechwriter who crafted that phrase. That minimalistic phrase remains powerful, making a point that pierces the assumptions and failures of an entire nation.
I’m embarrassed I forgot his words in the years that followed. I know that such forgetfulness is common and can beget ignorance—and that forgetfulness and ignorance combined beget noncompliance and stagnation in regard to special education. Since special education is a topic politicians and journalists—and even some educators—struggle to understand, it is easier to ignore it and/or move to the millions of other issues competing for their time.
Pursuant to 34 C.F.R. § 300.324(a)(2)(v), IEP teams must consider assistive technology devices and services when they are developing a child’s IEP.
34 C.F.R. § 300.324(a)(2)(v) specifically states:
(a) Development of IEP—
(2) Consideration of special factors.
The IEP Team must—
(v) Consider whether the child needs assistive technology devices and services.
There are “59 students with recovery services on their current IEP” in Fairfax County Public Schools.
That’s not a typo.
Fifty-nine (59) students out of FCPS’s over one hundred eighty thousand (180,000+) students have recovery services in their IEPs.
That’s it. Not 59% or 590, or any other variation one’s mind might jump to after reading the number “59” and thinking it must be a typo.
Nope. It’s real.
November 7, 2022, Virginia’s Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) released its report titled Pandemic Impact on Public K–12 Education. The report marks JLARC’s third critical report related to Virginia education in just two years (October 2020, Operations and Performance of the Virginia Department of Education; December 2020, K-12 Special Education in Virginia).
The findings aren’t surprising. They paint the portrait of a state that ignored the warning bells (even though it had almost 15 years to prepare for COVID)—and that to this day has failed to implement practices that ensure past mistakes don’t run into the future.
However, the report falls short in regard to data collection and interpretation.