U.S. Dept. of Education Office for Civil Rights FOIA Responses - Special Education Action

College Board’s Practices: Hardships, Hurdles & Headaches For Students Who Have Disabilities

A student’s need for accommodations shouldn’t result in hardship, hurdles, and headaches – nor should they be the reason a student is put at a disadvantage.

However, this is just what has happened in response to College Board’s practices.

But Wait, There’s More: FERPA Violations at FCPS Continue

July 14, 2021, I published the article “Fairfax County Public Schools Breaches Privacy of Thousands of Students; FERPA Noncompliance Continues”, which details Fairfax County Public Schools’ (FCPS) failure to keep thousands of students’ privacy secure.

I found one more breach.

U.S. Dept of Ed Provides Strategies to Address Impact of Lost Instructional Time; Another Look at Transition Plans in a Time of COVID

This week the United States Department of Education (USDOE) released “Strategies for Using American Rescue Plan Funding to Address the Impact of Lost Instructional Time”.

Sounds good, right?

If you have a child with a 504 Plan or an IEP, much of what’s listed is ripped from the pages of just about every book, article, blog post, state and/or fed reg you might have already read.

Will this document make a difference for children with special education needs?

FCPS Tech Problems Continue: FCPS Computer Shuts Down During SAT Exam

Today’s word for the day:

Negligence.

Definition:

Failure to take proper care in doing something.

Example:

Fairfax County Public Schools provided a student a computer that shut down while the student was taking the SAT exam.

What Is A Transition Plan?

Worrying about our children is what we do as parents, but helping our kids plan, prepare, and be ready for their future is supposed to be a team effort, with parents, their kids’ schools, and other agencies working together to help students who have disabilities. That team effort should be reflected in your child’s transition plan.

Transition plans are exactly what they sound like. They help students prepare for their transition from high school to whatever comes next in their lives.

Case Law They Use: IEPs & FAPE

Studying case law cited by your State Education Agency (SEA) and Local Education Agency (LEA) in response to parents’ state complaints, and studying case law cited by LEAs, LEA lawyers, and hearing officers during due process hearings is a good way to prepare yourself to 1) understand special education law, 2) understand the different ways it can be interpreted and inappropriately manipulated, and 3) how to use special education-related case law to argue your own case.

Virginia Department of Education Allows Noncompliance to Continue

The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) continues to turn a blind eye toward noncompliance within Virginia school districts and fails to heed the United States Department of Education’s (USDOE) dictum, “Completely ignoring credible allegations of noncompliance is not a reasonable method of exercising the Stateâ€™s general supervisory responsibilities.”

February 28. 2018, documentation of over 400+ special education violations was provided to the Virginia Department of Education (VDOE). The violations were committed by Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) and admitted to in unredacted internal FCPS documents title “Hot Topics”.

Two years later, the United States Department of Education (USDOE) Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP), advised VDOE. “Completely ignoring credible allegations of noncompliance is not a reasonable method of exercising the Stateâ€™s general supervisory responsibilities.” And yet, the Hot Topics report remains uninvestigated and the noncompliance continues.

July 30 is Deadline to Submit Comments about Education Secretary Cardona’s Proposed Priorities

July 30, 2021, is the deadline to submit comments related to six proposed priorities that the U.S. Secretary of Education published in the Federal Register.

Please don’t miss this opportunity to provide your input on policies that impact the education of children throughout the United States.

Fairfax County Public Schools Breaches Privacy of Thousands of Students; FERPA Noncompliance Continues

June 29, 2021, Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) breached the privacy of thousands of students attending South County High School, Hayfield Secondary School, Edison High School, West Potomac High School, Lake Braddock Secondary School, and FCPS Online Campus.

The breach includes the students’ names, their FCPS identification numbers, their FCPS email addresses, the schools at which they are enrolled, the names of their parents and/or guardians, and the email addresses of their parents and/or guardians.

Innovative Approaches to Literacy: United States Department of Education Holds Competition for 2021 Grant

The United States Department of Education (USDOE) is holding a competition for the Innovative Approaches to Literacy (IAL) grant in 2021.

April 6, 2021, USDOE published a notice of proposed priorities and requirement (NPP) for this program in the Federal Register (86 FR 17757).

July 12, 2021, USDOE published a notice of final priorities and requirement in the Federal Register (86 FR 36510).

TODAY: $6 Billion Distributed to Six States and the District of Columbia; What is the Status of Your State’s ARP ESSER Plan?

July 7, 2021, the U.S. Department of Education (USDOE) approved American Rescue Plan Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ARP ESSER) state plans for six states and the District of Columbia, and released $418,634,738 to Arkansas; $611,331,608 to Massachusetts; $138,468,766 to Rhode Island; $127,339,745 to South Dakota; $4,148,464,081 to Texas; Utah: $205,578,303; and $128,932,230 to the District of Columbia.

Each state education agency (SEA) had until June 7, 2021, to submit either: (1) its ARP ESSER plan or (2) the State requirements that preclude submission of the plan by that date and a date by which it will be able to submit its complete ARP ESSER plan.

Contact your SEA to find out if your state is among the 40 states that have submitted a plan. If not, ask why. Either way, request the status of the report.

The Perfect Storm: FCPS Video Features FERPA Violations, Teacher Training Issues, Fidelity of Implementation Problems, and Possible IEP Noncompliance

November 5, 2020, Fairfax County Public Schools again violated student privacy and again exhibited issues related to teacher training, a reading-related program, fidelity of implementation of a reading-related program, and possible noncompliance of student IEPs.

These issues occurred during an office hour session with FCPS’s Alice Lima-Whitney, during which she and the staff in attendance discussed the program iLit and how the teachers were progressing with their students.