September 2, 2020: Article published.
January 24, 2023: Article republished with new introduction (see italics below).
Almost three years ago, U.S. Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs issued a Differentiated Monitoring and Support report on Virginia. In response, VDOE issued a ten-page letter from Superintendent of Special Education and Student Services Samantha Hollins, which included false and misleading information.
In the years that have followed, noncompliance has continued in Virginia, as has Samantha’s failure to release a public statement correcting and/or apologizing for the false information in her previous ten-page letter. Within the last two months, VDOE’s failures made the news again when Office for Civil Rights issued two letters of finding for two Virginia agencies: Fairfax County Public Schools and Southeastern Cooperative Educational Programs.
The big question now: Will USDOE eventually pull funding for Virginia as it did for Texas, when Texas hit its post-DMS release three-year mark?
