Special Education Action is a 501(c)3 nonprofit publisher covering special education.
Its mission is to ensure parents, educators, and students have the information and tools necessary to fully understand, address, and safeguard the unique needs of all students who require special education.
Recent Articles
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?
UPDATED 12.13.23—Pro Tip: Don’t Believe Everything Fairfax County Public Schools Tells You
The one thing that can be said about Fairfax County Public Schools (FCPS) is that it is consistent. When it engages in noncompliance, rather than engaging in immediate transparency and honesty, it crafts messages that lead the public to believe someone else is at fault.
Why am I mentioning this?
Turns out FCPS left out some key information, such as that I have never and will never publish private information about kids—but I will publish information showing FCPS retaliates, is in noncompliance, and intentionally pushes inappropriate programs onto kids.
Accommodation Breakdown: Extended Time
It’s one of the most popular articles on the site, but I still continue to learn different ways this accommodation has played out with others. If you have your own input, please provide it in the comments below and/or email me and I’ll look at adding it to the article.
It includes a few different options I wish I’d included previously, as well as a few more pits you’ll want to make sure you avoid.
How to File a Privacy Violation Complaint
Can you file a complaint? If yes, how? Parents and/or students who believe a student’s privacy has been violated under the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), have a right to file a complaint. FERPA applies to all students. However, students who have IEPs have additional protection under Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Let’s explore both below.
VDOE and FCPS Failing Streak: Seven Years of Failing to Prevent Inadvertent Disclosure
For at least five years, FCPS, FCSB, and Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) have failed to stop the inadvertent disclosures, even though VDOE and/or U.S. Department of Education’s (USDOE) Student Privacy Police Office (SPPO) have repeatedly found FCPS at fault for failure to take sufficient precautions to prevent inadvertent disclosure. Not even losing a lawsuit in 2021, during which Fairfax County Circuit Court Judge Richard E. Gardiner pointed out FCSB’s failures, stopped FCPS and FCSB from future failures to take sufficient precautions to prevent inadvertent disclosure.
The irony is, while FCPS and FCSB have spent years failing to prevent inadvertent disclosures, FCPS school officials have spent years intentionally engaging in bad faith activities designed to prevent disclosure of other records from being responsive to FERPA and FOIA requests.