FCPS is in big trouble

[Anonymous]

Did you all get the email about Office of Civil Rights and FCPS?

November 30, 2022

Dear FCPS Families, Students, and Community,

I want to make you aware of a news release that has been issued by the Office for Civil Rights regarding a Resolution Agreement that was reached with our division and the ongoing work with our students with disabilities, as it relates to the pandemic.

As a result of this agreement, FCPS will be convening Individualized Education Program (IEP) and Section 504 Plan meetings for all current students with disabilities to determine if compensatory services are warranted. The division will also offer IEP meetings and Section 504 Plan meetings to all students with disabilities who graduated or left the division during the Pandemic Period (April 14, 2020 - June 16, 2022).

The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in a learning disruption that impacted schools around the world as they tried to balance the need for health and safety to combat the transmission of the COVID virus while continuing to support students’ academic, social, and emotional growth. In an effort to ensure continued support for students during an unprecedented time, FCPS implemented temporary learning plans for all students with IEPs in April 2020.

As we emerge from the global pandemic, FCPS remains committed to working diligently to provide the support needed to ensure each and every student recovers from learning loss. FCPS has and will continue to leverage resources to ensure students with the greatest need receive prioritized support for enhanced outcomes. Please know that we will be working closely on this issue to make sure we have supports in place to accomplish the work laid out in this agreement.

You may read the OCR news release and our statement.

If you have a specific question about your student’s case, please email [e-mail].

Sincerely,

Dr. Michelle C. Reid
Superintendent

[Anonymous]

What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

I would email and ask!

[Anonymous]

So many districts are in this situation.

[Anonymous]

I think FCPS really messed up. I have friends in MD and they were offered compensatory services (even though they didn't take it) and it seems Anne Arundel, Charles, PG. etc... handled Special Ed so much better during the pandemic.

Plus didn't FCPS get funds to help with this??

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:So many districts are in this situation.

+1

The pandemic was terrible for a lot of different populations for a lot of reasons. FCPS didn't do uniquely badly.

[Anonymous]

MCPS said they would offer compensatory services due to the pandemic.

Technically, they offered some extra hours of "tutoring" with aides or teachers to certain students.

But actually:


It's not working. It couldn't possibly have worked. This is not how disabilities are treated - going for a lengthy period of time with no services or accommodations, then being accompanied a tiny bit more. It doesn't make a dent in the learning delay.

What does reduce the gap?

***Intensive*** work done by parents at home, and/or paid specialists outside of school (yes, the pandemic has increased the inequality gap).

MCPS parents are given the run-around for compensatory services and wait months for something that by definition is not going to help much, when in reality they should be exerting themselves to compensate their kids' accumulated deficits themselves, without waiting.

Please do the same. Don't wait.

[Anonymous]

The Office of Civil Right’s investigation “found that the School Division inappropriately reduced and limited services provided to students with disabilities, based on considerations other than the students’ individual educational needs, and failed to adequately remedy these denials of FAPE.” OCR said it also “identified concerns with staffing shortages and other administrative obstacles that may have limited the School Division’s provision of FAPE, as well as its ability to sufficiently track its FAPE services."

So FCPS was unable to provide FAPE because of staffing shortages and other obstacles - because there was a pandemic.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

This would be my DS. Excellent grades pre and post Covid, but grades tanked during distance learning. His college options now aren’t the same caliber as they would have been if schools had not been closed so long. I doubt there’s anything we can do about it, though. Lesson #1 of adulthood is that life isn’t fair.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

This would be my DS. Excellent grades pre and post Covid, but grades tanked during distance learning. His college options now aren’t the same caliber as they would have been if schools had not been closed so long. I doubt there’s anything we can do about it, though. Lesson #1 of adulthood is that life isn’t fair.

Colleges also aren't what they were, either.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Office of Civil Right’s investigation “found that the School Division inappropriately reduced and limited services provided to students with disabilities, based on considerations other than the students’ individual educational needs, and failed to adequately remedy these denials of FAPE.” OCR said it also “identified concerns with staffing shortages and other administrative obstacles that may have limited the School Division’s provision of FAPE, as well as its ability to sufficiently track its FAPE services."

So FCPS was unable to provide FAPE because of staffing shortages and other obstacles - because there was a pandemic.

I have saved an email from the school reading specialist who was working 1-on-1 with my daughter per her IEP that basically said she couldn’t do the 1-on-1 virtually because she was watching her own children.

It still makes me laugh that she put it in writing and thought that was a valid reason to not do her job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:The Office of Civil Right’s investigation “found that the School Division inappropriately reduced and limited services provided to students with disabilities, based on considerations other than the students’ individual educational needs, and failed to adequately remedy these denials of FAPE.” OCR said it also “identified concerns with staffing shortages and other administrative obstacles that may have limited the School Division’s provision of FAPE, as well as its ability to sufficiently track its FAPE services."

So FCPS was unable to provide FAPE because of staffing shortages and other obstacles - because there was a pandemic.

The crushing scheduling and paperwork burden of having to do an extra IEP meeting for every single current student and a bunch of former students is going to cause even more burnout among the remaining staff and probably feed the spiral.

I don't know what the answer is. Special ed students were failed during the pandemic. They're being failed now. But there are serious, serious structural problems with IDEA, funding, staffing, all of it, and it's coming apart at the seams. OCR's "remedy" is not a solution to any of it and will probably just make things worse. It'll end up with more empty promises and garbage on paper because they can't hire anybody to fill them.

[Anonymous]

I think it is laughable that everyone is going to get a new IEP meeting. Those meetings are a horrible waste of time and it is not going to do anything productive. We paid a fortune for private speech and tutoring during the pandemic- can FCPS just pay me back for a small fraction of it?

[Anonymous]

Was FCPS supposed to conjure teachers from thin air? This is ridiculous.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:What about those whose grades suffered because they didn’t get adequate services and they didn’t get into a college that they could’ve gotten into and instead kids who weren’t disadvantaged in that way, got in?

We have all suffered because of COVID. Lots of things aren’t fair. We all lost a lot.