News - Special Education Action

Today: $81 Billion of $122 Billion Available; Contact Your School Division, Ask How It Will Use The Funds

Today, $81 billion of the $122 billion in funding from the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Act of 2021 and the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) fund will be available to all states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. President Biden will make this announcement later today, at the National Safe School Reopening Summit that is being hosted by the U.S. Department of Education.

Contact Your School Division

Within 30 days of receiving ARP ESSER funds, the local education agency (LEA) is required to seek input from the community in advance of making its plan publicly available.

FERPA Violation: Longfellow Middle School Students’ Privacy Violated

Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is again guilty of violating the privacy of its students.

Although FCPS struggles with consistency in many arenas, repeat violations of privacy is not one of them.

$200,000+ = What Fairfax County Public Schools Paid to be Told the Program it Pushed is Inappropriate for Students with Dyslexia

$65,370.60 = The amount law firm Blankingship & Keith invoiced Fairfax County Public Schools between November 22, 2019, and August 27, 2020.

The result? The Virginia hearing officer ruled the the program “Just Words” is inappropriate for a student with Dyslexia, which was the program FCPS proposed for the student on which the due process hearing was focused.

Two months = The amount of time that passed before Blankingship & Keith started invoicing FCPS for another hearing related to “Just Words” not being appropriate for a student with Dyslexia.

Fairfax County Pay-to-Play, 5-Days-a-Week, In-Person Education Model Generates Revenue for County; Sparks Civil Rights Investigation

Payment and availability are not prerequisites for a free appropriate public education (FAPE).

January 2021, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) Office of Civil Rights (OCR) launched an investigation into Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) practices of refusing to provide in-person instruction to students with disabilities, while at the same time opening “its schools to in-person child-care for general education students.” January 12, 2021, USDOE OCR submitted a letter to Superintendent Scott Brabrand, to announce the launch of the investigation.

However, the issue is about more than child care.

FCPS Knows Reading Program Isn’t Appropriate for All Students who have Dyslexia

Warning: This is another “Just Words” article.

If you’re new to my articles, I’ve spent a fair amount of time writing about “Just Words” in response to Fairfax County Public School’s inappropriate use of the program for students who have Dyslexia. My articles aren’t a criticism of the program, but of the administration and implementation of a program that 1) the publisher does not endorse for students with Dyslexia and 2) that two Virginia hearing officers have ruled to be inappropriate for students with Dyslexia.

Today I was provided access to the Dyslexia participant slide deck for the 2.12.19 FCPS Secondary Literacy Intervention Teachers “Resource Bonanza”.

On the slide titled “Specialized Learning Programs”, there are three programs listed: “Just Words”, “Corrective Reading”, and “Language Live”.

This One’s for the Advocates and Hypocrites

This one’s for all the advocates and hypocrites, the experts and hustlers, and wanna-be change makers who are writing, and speaking, and screaming, and singing, and demonstrating to change the system—while all the while making a killing on the system they say they want to change.

Speaking the truth of the remarkable Ice T:

“You can’t come out on a record dissing the system and be on a label that’s connected to the system.”

Why Do FCPS Case Managers Need to Be Asked to Communicate with Teachers?

How can case managers collect data for IEPs and 504s if they don’t communicate with teachers?

How can case managers ensure IEPs and 504s are being implemented in full if they aren’t communicating with teachers?

At the start of the 2020-21 school year, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) case managers had to be reminded to connect with the teachers of students enrolled in the FCPS Online Campus.

Fairfax County Public Schools Failed to Comply with Federal Regulations; Continued to Deny IEEs

Virginia’s Independent Education Evaluation (IEE) regulations will be changed to align with federal regulations.

Local educations agencies (LEA) are required to follow the federal regulations (even before the state regulation change) or they will be found in noncompliance.

However, seven months passed before Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) presented this information to special education lead teachersâ€”even though it was already found in noncompliance for failure to comply with federal regulations.

Category: News (page 19)