FCPS Report Detailed How To Reduce Special Education Referrals; Predicted The Future; Confirmed Suspicions

If you have a high school student in Fairfax County Public Schools, read this report.

It highlights a focus on denying services in the name of saving money and sheds light on one of the potential reasons why referrals and evaluations were such a battle when our seniors were younger, at points in their lives when early intervention special education services would have made the greatest difference—and could have resulted in very different realities for these students today.

College Board’s Practices: Hardships, Hurdles & Headaches For Students Who Have Disabilities

A student’s need for accommodations shouldn’t result in hardship, hurdles, and headaches – nor should they be the reason a student is put at a disadvantage. 

However, this is just what has happened in response to College Board’s practices. 

But Wait, There’s More: FERPA Violations at FCPS Continue

July 14, 2021, I published the article “Fairfax County Public Schools Breaches Privacy of Thousands of Students; FERPA Noncompliance Continues”, which details Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) failure to keep thousands of students’ privacy secure.

I found one more breach.

U.S. Dept of Ed Provides Strategies to Address Impact of Lost Instructional Time; Another Look at Transition Plans in a Time of COVID

This week the United States Department of Education (USDOE) released “Strategies for Using American Rescue Plan Funding to Address the Impact of Lost Instructional Time”.

Sounds good, right?

If you have a child with a 504 Plan or an IEP, much of what’s listed is ripped from the pages of just about every book, article, blog post, state and/or fed reg you might have already read.

Will this document make a difference for children with special education needs?

Case Law They Use: IEPs & FAPE

Studying case law cited by your State Education Agency (SEA) and Local Education Agency (LEA) in response to parents’ state complaints, and studying case law cited by LEAs, LEA lawyers, and hearing officers during due process hearings is a good way to prepare yourself to 1) understand special education law, 2) understand the different ways it can be interpreted and inappropriately manipulated, and 3) how to use special education-related case law to argue your own case.

Virginia Department of Education Allows Noncompliance to Continue

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) continues to turn a blind eye toward noncompliance within Virginia school districts and fails to heed the United States Department of Education’s (USDOE) dictum, “Completely ignoring credible allegations of noncompliance is not a reasonable method of exercising the State’s general supervisory responsibilities.”

February 28. 2018, documentation of over 400+ special education violations was provided to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). The violations were committed by Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) and admitted to in unredacted internal FCPS documents title “Hot Topics”.

Two years later, the United States Department of Education (USDOE) Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), advised VDOE. “Completely ignoring credible allegations of noncompliance is not a reasonable method of exercising the State’s general supervisory responsibilities.” And yet, the Hot Topics report remains uninvestigated and the noncompliance continues.

call to action

July 30 is Deadline to Submit Comments about Education Secretary Cardona’s Proposed Priorities

July 30, 2021, is the deadline to submit comments related to six proposed priorities that the U.S. Secretary of Education published in the Federal Register.

Please don’t miss this opportunity to provide your input on policies that impact the education of children throughout the United States.