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Differentiated Monitoring and Support letters of findings and reports released by U.S. Department of Education.
March 13, 2024, U.S Department of Education (USDOE) Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) found Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) in noncompliance for the fourth year in a row. OSEP released its findings in a new Differentiated Monitoring Support report and letter. The issues identified relate to state complaints, mediation, due process, prior written notice, confidentiality, and independent educational evaluations (IEE).
March 15, 2024, Superintendent Lisa Coons responded to OSEP’s letter and report by issuing a letter to USDOE that states VDOE’s commitment to change and includes a chart outlining VDOE’s proposed corrective action plan (CAP) and timelines.
Notable corrective actions include changes to Virginia regulations regarding state complaint and due process filings. Moving forward, parents and advocates will be able to file state complaints and due process against VDOE.
Long-term noncompliance continues to relate to independent educational evaluations (IEE).
Although OSEP characterizes such letters as “close-out” letters, they are more status reports than close-out letters, since the latter infers close-out of all monitoring, rather than one of nine issues being closed out in this case, with eight of nine remaining in noncompliance.
The letters were issued between 2021 and May 2023, however OSEP waited until the past two months to publicly release them on USDOE’s website.
They detail years of monitoring, corrective actions required by OSEP, continued noncompliance, and the states eventually satisfying the action required by OSEP. However, in states like North Carolina and Texas there are a few caveats. caveats.
The announcement came in a May 12, 2023, letter from Valerie Williams, director of OSEP, to Lisa Coons, VDOE’s new superintendent of public instruction and is a follow up to OSEP’s February 17, 2023, letter to Coon’s predecessor Jillian Balow, which announced OSEP would be conducting additional monitoring activities, to include an on-site investigation. According to the May 12 letter, the on-site will occur during the week of September 25, 2023.
USDOE announced monitoring of Hawaii in 2019; of Arizona, Florida, and Virginia in 2020; and of Delaware in 2021. USDOE closed out monitoring of four of the five states within one-to-three years.
In the case of Virginia, it is on track to take more than three years to come into compliance with Individuals with Disabilities in Education Act (IDEA).
Just weeks before Jillian Balow announced her resignation as Virginia Superintendent of Public Education, United States Department of Education Office of Special Education Programs put Virginia Department of Education on Notice: Get into compliance or face sanctions.
In a January 17, 2023, letter from USDOE OSEP to Balow (obtained today via a FOIA request), USDOE OSEP warned VDOE:
“If VDOE is unable to demonstrate full compliance with the IDEA requirements identified in OSEP’s monitoring report, this could result in the imposition of Specific Conditions on VDOE’s IDEA Part B grant award and could affect VDOE’s determination under section 616(d) of IDEA.”