Special Education Action's 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
Why did HO Morgan Brooke-Devlin Work Out of the Office of Blankingship & Keith During a Due Process Hearing?
Does the Following Smell Neutral?
Virginia Hearing Officer Morgan Brooke-Devlin worked in a Blankingship & Keith office during a due process hearing for which she was assigned to be the hearing officer.
In addition to its lawyers being bcc’d on e-mails from teachers to students, Blankingship & Keith lawyers, among other things, represent school divisions during due process hearings.
Due Process Diaries: Don’t Let the School Division Get a Jump Start with Hearing Officers and Subpoenas
While there is a regulated timeline for the assignment of hearing officers to due process hearings (see below), there aren’t federal statutes or regulations stating that the parent and school division be made aware of the hearing officer assignment at the same time.
Feel the Need to Include Judgement of an Advocate’s Skin Color in Your Legal Decision? You Might Be A Virginia Hearing Officer
Virginia Hearing Officer Frank Aschmann thought it appropriate to judge the skin color of a parent’s advocate, and include his judgement of his interpretation of her appearance in his due process decision.
Why?
FOIA Release: Compensatory Services and Governor Northam’s Staff; Please Tell Us Our Tax Dollars Didn’t Pay For This
It reads like a report modeled on a deflated balloon. “Full” isn’t a word to associate with it.
At this point in the game, states across the nation have been facing this topic since Spring 2020. Fingers crossed that a) more research is being done and b) that any related charges are minimal (or waived).
Save the Date: JLARC Live Presentation of Report on Special Education in Virginia
The report will be presented live. A dedicated YouTube link will be made available for public viewing of the live event. (link to come)
Fairfax County Public Schools Special Education Department Chair Meeting
It includes information about IEP development, too, such as Lourrie Duddridge correcting the use of the PLOP page for present levels instead of a place used to document meeting minutes.
At about the 1:54:56 time mark, Lourrie Duddridge states: “We’ve been looking at a lot of present level of performance pages (PLOPS) and we need to just remind everybody that those documents are really for documenting the student’s present level of performance. How are they doing in their educational environment and what we propose as a team, and that those statements are written in objective measurable terms, and that we’re using appropriate data on those pages. What the page is not for is summaries of what happened–minutes of the meeting. And we’re seeing a lot of that on our present level of performance pages and what it does is clutter the IEP, and then we get present level of performance pages that are 20 pages long, because we have documented so much stuff that really isn’t relevant to the proposal itself.”