U.S. Department of Education Office for Civil Rights FOIA Responses
Accommodation Breakdown: Extended Time
There is no one-size-fits all answer. It depends on the student and it could depend on the class, too.
Any number of things could lead to students experiencing fatigue, headaches, eye strain, and/or other struggles that impact them as the day progresses.
IEP Progress Reports: What Should Be Reported Vs. What Is Reported
What should be in Individualized Education Program (IEP) progress reports and what actually is in IEP progress reports often are two different things.
Imagine it is time for your annual work review. Your employer presents a report that states you didn’t make progress, or didn’t make enough progress, toward your goals for the year. However, when you read the report, there’s no data backing your employer’s decision, nor is there a performance plan for moving forward. You don’t know why you didn’t progress and you don’t know what you need to do in order to progress.
The same issues occur with IEP progress reports.
The Problems with Quarterly IEP Measurements
I’ve never understood why Individualized Education Programs (IEP) include goals for quarterly measurements. As a parent, if my kids failed to do their chores for a week, I wouldn’t wait until the end of the quarter to assess the situation. Why wait an entire quarter to address a problem that’s clearly getting worse? Why not assess sooner and narrow the goal until it can be expanded in full—or expand the goal if the student achieves the goal sooner than expected?
Office for Civil Rights Releases New Guidance Document: “Equal Access to Elementary and Secondary Education for Students Who Are English Learners with Disabilities”
Office for Civil Rights Releases FAQ Guidance Focused on Privacy and Filing Complaints with OCR
OCR states the document “is intended to respond to questions frequently raised to the U.S. Department of Education (Department), Office for Civil Rights (OCR) by individuals who file complaints and/or contact OCR for technical assistance.”
Idaho in Noncompliance Third Consecutive Year
Office for Civil Rights Has “Serious Compliance Concerns” with St. Johns County School District’s (FL) Restraint and Seclusion Practices; School Division Enters Into Resolution Agreement with OCR
The Language of IEPs and 504s: The Importance of “All” and “Before”
“The IEP will share reading data with parents on a monthly basis.”
After six months of meetings, your internal parent alarm starts going off because the data provided by the school doesn’t match what you’re seeing at home.
You submit a FERPA request for all reading data related to your child.
The FERPA response provides you negative reading data that the school didn’t previous share with you.
You want to complain to the school and/or submit a complaint to the state, but . . .
The school followed the IEP. It did share reading data on a monthly basis. There wasn’t anything in the IEP that stated all data had to be provided.
U.S. Dept. of Education Finds Nevada Department of Education at Fault for Noncompliance with IDEA; USDOE Issues Differentiated Monitoring and Support Findings
Helpful Information from FCPS Lawyer John Cafferky, which You Won’t Find in VDOE’s “Parents’ Guide to Special Education Dispute Resolution”
The Language of IEPs and 504s: The Problem with “Engage”
Teachers will engage with student to ensure student understands and accurately records all assignments in student’s planner.
Now imagine attending an IEP meeting at which this goal is being discussed. You push for more details, but the staff member helming the meeting insists that engage means the following:
“It’s not that they’re waiting for to come to them. They’re going to engage with .”
What could go wrong?
