New Articles
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?
Virginia’s Noncompliance Continues; U.S. Dept. of Ed. Issues New Findings Documenting State’s Failures
U.S. Dept. of Justice Files Suit Against Maine for Unnecessarily Segregating Children Who Have Disabilities
DOJ claims “Maine administers its behavioral health service system for children in a manner that gives the families and guardians of these children no meaningful choice other than institutions.” The result is hundreds of children segregated from their communities, “miss the chance to wake up in their own beds, to develop bonds with family and friends, and to go to school with their siblings and peers.”
Students with Disabilities Arrested and Referred to Police at More Than Double the Rate of Students without Disabilities
Office for Civil Rights Finds Colonial School District Failed to Provide Equal Access to High Rigor Coursework to Students with Disabilities; Discrepancy in Data Reporting Identified
Office for Civil Rights Addresses Cancer, Epilepsy, Sickle Cell Disease; Issues Guidance on Medical Conditions Triggering Protections Under Section 504
In addition, they provide descriptions of the medical conditions and examples of how the conditions can affect a student’s experience in school.
Justice Department Finds Fulton County School District Failed to Prevent and Respond to Sexual Assault of Students Who Have Disabilities
DOJ determined Fulton County Schools “failed to adequately train its employees on responding to student-on-student Sexual Misconduct and lacked clearly defined policies and procedures (including with respect to roles and timelines) for investigating student-on-student Sexual Misconduct and for considering the impact of a student’s disabilities on their ability to consent to sexual activity during such investigations; and failed to offer students adequate supportive measures, ensure that students’ disabilities are effectively accommodated, and effectively communicate with students and their families.”
Justice Department Finds Utah at Fault for Failing to Provide Effective Transition Services
DOJ determined Utah is violating ADA “by unnecessarily segregating youth and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities (I/DD) during the day, instead of helping them find work and spend their days in their communities.” In addition, it found that gaps in Utah’s transition service system put students transitioning out of children’s services “at serious risk for unnecessary segregation in these settings”, because the students “enter adulthood without the experiences or the services they need to live fully integrated adult lives.”
VDOE Finds FCPS at Fault for Systemic Failure to Implement IEPs; FCPS Must Address Delays in Providing Compensatory Education and Reimbursable Expenses
A Letter of Findings (LOF) released today by Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) cites FCPS’ failures to provide compensatory education and reimbursable expenses in a timely manner consistent with IEP implementation regulations.
What Do Parents Need to Know?
In both cases, the reimbursable expenses and compensatory education are related to FCPS’ November 30, 2022, resolution agreement with Office for Civil Rights (OCR).
Although the findings address the families who joined the systemic complaint, neither VDOE nor FCPS can ignore noncompliance faced by other families.
17 Years of Independent Educational Evaluation Noncompliance: Virginia Department of Education Fails Students and to Perform Its General Supervisory Duties
During the last four years, VDOE has failed to ensure that all local education agencies statewide have implemented the changes required by U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education Programs findings in its June 23, 2020, differentiated monitoring and support report on VDOE.