Children are our priority. Ensuring their needs are met is our goal.
January 24, 2020, Samantha Hollins, assistant superintendent of VDOE’s Department of Special Education and Student Services, provided incorrect guidance on the recording of resolution meetings.
She first indicated that there is a Virginia regulation prohibiting the recording of resolution meetings.
Not true.
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.
“Teachers should not intentionally allow other students to know that XXXXXX has an IEP and receives special education services.”
The parent didn’t understand that privacy is a right, not an accommodation, simply because the privacy violations modeled by the teacher pointed in the opposite direction.
The IEP case manager for the parent’s child replies with a time and a date, and states that the child’s regular education teacher will not be a part of the IEP team.
The school’s proposed IEP team does not comply with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).
If the parent agrees to the meeting, he or she will be attending a meeting, but not an IEP meeting with an IEP team as defined by IDEA.
Under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) there are additional confidentiality and access protections.
This article includes a few examples of noncompliance, with which you might not be familiar, as well as your go-to regulations should you need them.
This includes assistive technology devices and services. Examples include:
* A laptop that 1) scans worksheets, which the student can then type on (because typing might be easier than writing), and 2) can be used to take pictures of the front board, notes, or any other information the child needs.
* A computer with a screen reader, to help with literacy
* Access to Learning Ally and other sources for audiobooks
* Noise-cancelling head-phones
*Voice-recognition software
If your child needs assistive technology devices or services, under both IDEA and Section 504, your child has the right to be provided them.