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
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.
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.
Update 12.3.23—Fairfax County Public Schools Trains Staff to Thwart FERPA Requests: Don’t Put it in Writing
Updated 11.21.23—FOIA: Virginia Department of Education State Complaint Tracking Logs, 2014-2023
The link to the spreadsheets pulled together by the volunteer is being added here, with the understanding that the data needs doublechecking, as well as more slicing and dicing to identify trends. Help still is needed. If you’re interested in helping, please let me know.
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September 2023, Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates (COPAA) released a report of its in-depth look at state complaints. Its findings aren’t surprising. Parents who believe their local education agency (LEA) to be in noncompliance with Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA), can seek remedies under IDEA’s dispute resolution processes. However, those processes—such as filing state complaints—are stacked against parents. VDOE’s state complaint tracking logs provide a portrait of a state heavy on dismissals and findings in favor of LEAs.
UPDATED 11.20.23—VDOE FOIA Response: Independent Evaluations of Virginia Department of Education’s Special Education Program
11.20.23: Article updated to include original report submitted by Dr. Robert Pasternack to Dr. Lisa Coons, as well as emails between Robert and Lisa regarding the first final report, and invoices related to both reports. Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) released two independent evaluations of its special education program. The evaluations were done by Dr. Robert Pasternack, Sam Howarth, and Nathan Levenson at the request of Superintendent of Public Instruction Dr. Lisa Coons. The findings aren’t a surprise. In Virginia, educators and families are two ends of the same burning match—and VDOE fuels the fire. Rather than being the “North Star” guiding educators and bridging the gap between families and educators, VDOE’s actions and inactions continue to increase the divide.
