Children are our priority. Ensuring their needs are met is our goal.
This follows OCR’s January 12, 2021, announcement that it would investigate FCPS, Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD), and Seattle Public Schools.
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’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.
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.
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.
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.
This access is key to ensuring parents are able to meaningfully participate during IEP meetings and provide informed consent (or refusal) to a school’s proposal/s.
Access to education records, meaningful participation, and informed consent are three rights afforded to parents under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
Thankfully, it isn’t the parent’s job to create IEPs that are written with clear, concise language that ensures provision of a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE). That’s the school division’s job.
And yet . . . Vague and broad language persists and the Virginia Department of Education has allowed this.