Category: Going Local: Virginia (page 27)

6.23.20: The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) issued a Differentiated Monitoring Report about Virginia.

For each issue cited, there is an action required by the U.S. DOE—and these actions have 90-day timelines associated with them.

However, just because there’s a 90 day timeline, doesn’t mean the noncompliance can continue during that period.

Today, Matthew Schneer from OSEP stated, “any actions or activities by VDOE or its LEAs that are not consistent with IDEA in the interim period will be considered noncompliance and subject to the requirements in 34 C.F.R. § 300.600(e).”

7.21.20: Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) Superintendent Scott Brabrand announced:

“Today, the Fairfax County School Board supported my revised recommendation that we begin the 2020-21 school year with virtual learning for all students. The online school year will begin, as scheduled, September 8.”

In making this decision, FCPS changed the education point of access from school buildings to computers.

8.5.20: FCPS parents started receiving emails stating there is a maintenance fee for the computers being provided via the FCPSOn program.

By charging a fee related to computers it’s charging kids to access their education.

This article applies to all the parents of all the students nationwide who were given the program Language Live, even though the examples below pull from Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) in Virginia.

Language Live is a program that school divisions license from the company Voyager Sopris. FCPS uses Language Live as a tier 3 “comprehensive specialized reading program” for students with Dyslexia.

After students were administered the program, starting at Level 2, Unit 7, the publisher advised FCPS, “After we got some initial feedback and data from past implementations, it became clear that if students needed Level 2, they needed all of it. Those students who would have placed in the second part of the level really didn’t need an intervention like LL.”

Students became data points instead of having their unique needs appropriately addressed.

Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) issued a Notice of Complaint (NOC) in response to a systemic complaint filed on behalf of six Fairfax County Public School (FCPS) students.

FCPS’s response to the complaint makes a case AGAINST providing compensatory education in response to the cessation of in-person instruction during the 2019-20 school year, based on an argument that schools weren’t open and FCPS isn’t responsible for closed and/or partial days.