Special Education Action Page 39 of 45

Why did HO Morgan Brooke-Devlin Work Out of the Office of Blankingship & Keith During a Due Process Hearing?

Due Process Hearings are supposed to be impartial—at least that’s what federal regulations state (See §300.511).

Does the Following Smell Neutral?

Virginia Hearing Officer Morgan Brooke-Devlin worked in a Blankingship & Keith office during a due process hearing for which she was assigned to be the hearing officer.

In addition to its lawyers being bcc’d on e-mails from teachers to students, Blankingship & Keith lawyers, among other things, represent school divisions during due process hearings.

Due Process Diaries: Don’t Let the School Division Get a Jump Start with Hearing Officers and Subpoenas

When you file for due process, request that you and the school division, and/or its counsel, be made aware of the hearing officer assigned to the hearing at the same.

While there is a regulated timeline for the assignment of hearing officers to due process hearings (see below), there aren’t federal statutes or regulations stating that the parent and school division be made aware of the hearing officer assignment at the same time.

Feel the Need to Include Judgement of an Advocate’s Skin Color in Your Legal Decision? You Might Be A Virginia Hearing Officer

Virginia Hearing Officer Frank Aschmann thought it appropriate to judge the skin color of a parent’s advocate, and include his judgement of his interpretation of her appearance in his due process decision.

Why?

FOIA Release: Compensatory Services and Governor Northam’s Staff; Please Tell Us Our Tax Dollars Didn’t Pay For This

Governor Northam’s office provided the document below, in response to a FOIA request.

It reads like a report modeled on a deflated balloon. “Full” isn’t a word to associate with it.

At this point in the game, states across the nation have been facing this topic since Spring 2020. Fingers crossed that a) more research is being done and b) that any related charges are minimal (or waived).

Save the Date: JLARC Live Presentation of Report on Special Education in Virginia

December 14, 2020, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC)—the oversight agency of the Virginia General Assembly—will present its report on Special Education in Virginia.

The report will be presented live. A dedicated YouTube link will be made available for public viewing of the live event. (link to come)

Fairfax County Public Schools Special Education Department Chair Meeting

This post features videos, video chats, and slide shows related to Fairfax County Public Schools special education instruction.

It includes information about IEP development, too, such as Lourrie Duddridge correcting the use of the PLOP page for present levels instead of a place used to document meeting minutes.

At about the 1:54:56 time mark, Lourrie Duddridge states: “We’ve been looking at a lot of present level of performance pages (PLOPS) and we need to just remind everybody that those documents are really for documenting the student’s present level of performance. How are they doing in their educational environment and what we propose as a team, and that those statements are written in objective measurable terms, and that we’re using appropriate data on those pages. What the page is not for is summaries of what happened–minutes of the meeting. And we’re seeing a lot of that on our present level of performance pages and what it does is clutter the IEP, and then we get present level of performance pages that are 20 pages long, because we have documented so much stuff that really isn’t relevant to the proposal itself.”

FCPS Lawyer bcc’d on Student’s Emails; Claims He is a School Official; Says it’s “Appropriate” for Him to Have Access

Earlier this month, Special Education Action reported that Blankingship & Keith lawyer Wesley Allen and/or both Allen and his colleague John Cafferky were bcc’d on about three dozen emails between a teacher and student, as well as on emails between Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) staff and the students’ parents, spanning a period of over a year.

In a recent meeting, the parents and their advocate brought the bccing practice to the attention of a due process hearing officer.

The hearing officer, in turn, asked Allen, who was attending the meeting, too:

“What’s your authority Mr. Allen?”

Due Process Diaries, Part II: Subpoenas

In part one of this series, I shared regulations related to filing for a due process hearing—and a bit of what happened after I filed a few years ago. Let’s continue the story.

Before I knew a hearing officer had been assigned, Blankingship & Keith, one of the law firms Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) taps into for due process hearings, started in with subpoenas.

I’d never been served—much less seen—a subpoena before those arrived.

With the help of Google and God, I got up to speed on subpoenas.

I learned they are kin to a child in a toy shop. Ask the kid what he or she wants, and the response will be everything in sight—plus the G.I. Joe with the Kung Fu grip (for those “Trading Places” fans).

Author: Callie Oettinger (page 39)