Children are our priority. Ensuring their needs are met is our goal.
Today’s privacy violations are brought to you by Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) Office of Special Education Procedural Support.
May 6, 2021, Jane Strong, director of the Office of Special Education and Procedural Support, breached a student’s privacy when she emailed six documents related to the student to individuals to whom she should not have sent them.
5.21.21: Just four days after FCPS spoke with USDOE SPPO, SCHS staff member Tina Wrubluski violated the privacy of numerous students when she shared her computer screen during an IEP meeting. Although numerous people kept trying to obtain her attention, Tina continued working away, making document folders about specific students available for viewing.
The United States’ money tree still has $122 billion in funding available to all states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
Yesterday, April 21, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) released a template for the application states must submit before USDOE will release remaining American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) fund dollars. States are required to submit their plans to USDOE for approval.
According to the template’s instructions, each state education agency (SEA) must address all requirements listed in the template. This includes, but is not limited to identifying needs of underserved students, and “how the LEA will ensure that the interventions it implements, including but not limited to the interventions under section 2001(e)(1) of the ARP Act to address the academic impact of lost instructional time, will respond to the academic, social, emotional, and mental health needs of all students, and particularly those students disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, including students from low-income families, students of color, English learners, children with disabilities, students experiencing homelessness, children and youth in foster care, and migratory students.”
The transcript included in this article is for a due process hearing that took place over the course of six days, between December 3, 2019, and December 13, 2019.
The mother and father of a student attending Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) filed for due process. FCPS is the local education agency (LEA) involved. FCPS was represented by John Cafferky, a lawyer with Blankingship & Keith. The Virginia hearing officer was Richard Alvey. The parents were represented by lawyer Ashley VanCleef.
This hearing and the decision written by Hearing Officer Alvey proved to be a gamechanger, specifically Alvey’s statement that the program “Just Words” is inappropriate for students with Dyslexia.
April 13, 2021, FCPS staff exchanged an internal e-mail in which FCPS admitted fault and an intention to discuss entering into a rapid resolution with OCR.
How are members nominated and elected to serve?
When will the next round of individuals be nominated?
If you don’t already know the answers to these questions, please visit your state education agency’s (SEA) site (or call) to find out who is representing you and your children — and to perhaps seek a nomination to the committee yourself.
The Problem: Parents of students who need such an option have not had it offered to them—and many don’t even know the option exists.
Contact your state education agency (SEA).
If it is seeking a waiver from the United Stated Department of Education (USDOE), it is required to give the public notice and a reasonable time for it to comment.
February 22, 2021, USDOE issued a letter inviting states to request waivers for the 2020-21 school year “of the accountability and school identification requirements in the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA).”