Massive layoffs of special education staff as Department of Educatujon

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the people at Dept of Ed but I am not sure FCPS follows what they say. Having dealt with FCPS for years- I think they have been allowed to do whatever they want so not sure how this changes anything

I don’t think this will change much for wealthy states and districts, but people in poor, rural, or red states will be hit hard.

Wealthy districts screw over sped kids too and now will be able to do it even more freely without any oversight.

I am not sure how FCPS can do less. Like- they do nothing in the case of my child so can they really do worse?

Yes. I obviously don’t know your child’s situation, but the push to mainstream kids with disabilities in the least restrictive environments— without the supports that they, their teachers, and their classmates need to be successful— can be problematic, and even dangerous. As fewer special education resources are available, mainstreaming without adequate supports in place is likely to become more common. That’s likely to lead to more teachers retiring and quitting, and more students— both regular education and special education — in classroom settings that don’t and can’t adequately meet their needs.

Wouldn’t it be great if some First Lady would champion special education as their special cause!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the people at Dept of I am not sure FCPS follows what they say. Having dealt with FCPS for years- I think they have been allowed to do whatever they want so not sure how this changes anything

I don’t think this will change much for wealthy states and districts, but people in poor, rural, or red states will be hit hard.

Wealthy districts screw over sped kids too and now will be able to do it even more freely without any oversight.

I am not sure how FCPS can do less. Like- they do nothing in the case of my child so can they really do worse?

So the expectation going forward is to expect nothing from anyone

Not the school district, not College Board , not colleges, not employers

No, I don’t think “expect nothing from anyone” is a fair read. The 3 major federal underpinnings of educational law are still the law of the land - IDEA, SEc. 504 and the ADA. Gutting the DoEd doesn’t change that, although it does gut one common enforcement mechanism. College Board, colleges and employers will all still have to comply with the ADA and Sec. 504, and they all have deep pockets that still make civil suits for violation of rights attractive.

As terrible as the current SCOTUS is on many issues, this SCOTUS has expanded educational disability rights in 2 major recent cases - Endrew F and AJT v Oswego — making it a bit easier to sue. Lawsuits are a more difficult way to enforce rights, but there will also still be a state complaint pathway (the quality of which may vary from state to state).

Don’t give up!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the people at Dept of Ed but I am not sure FCPS follows what they say. Having dealt with FCPS for years- I think they have been allowed to do whatever they want so not sure how this changes anything

I don’t think this will change much for wealthy states and districts, but people in poor, rural, or red states will be hit hard.

OP here. This is exactly it.

It's even to the detriment of wealthy states because a lot of the underpinnings for enforcement of IDEA and 504 come from DoEd. I can't tell you how many times I've threatened to file a federal complaint and then used the material from DOEd to buttress my argument with the school team.

They have a great website that explained all aspects of these laws (does it exist still?), and they do a lot of interpretation of regulations. People can write in and ask for interpretations, which then end up carrying the force of law (until someone, perhaps, challenges that interpretation in court). These are called "Dear Colleague" letters or OSEP letters. Look here to see examples of issues that are addressed by these OSEP letters: https://www.wrightslaw.com/info/osep.index.htm

Basically, whatever the federal level does, wealthy states model often. But, moving forward, states will not have a unitary model to follow (or if they do it's likely to be a bad model). This means that kids who move state to state with IEPs will no longer have the same kind of transferability of IEP rights. (And, students move a lot.)

Gutting DoEd and OSEP also guts the info collection mechanism -- how many kids have IEPs, how much money is being spent, how effective are programs, etc. It's analogous to what Trump is doing by firing BLS people -- we can't know the economy is bad if we are not collecting stats about it in a neutral way. We can't know the access to and quality of special education if we don't have data about it.

If we don't have data about it, and we are losing the people who help define what the law means and create systems of complaints, then enforcement of the law becomes extremely difficult for everyone.

It is true, that overall wealthy states are likely to be better off than poor ones, but doing this harms kids and families everywhere.

(And, while it harms families, it really harms moms the most, because moms are the ones by and large who end up having to homeschool, tutor and scaffold kids through school, college and life, and if kids with special needs aren't getting special education at school, then it's moms who tend to fall out of the workforce to compensate for what isn't being provided at school, whether they teach it on their own or spend time driving kids around to private pay therapists and tutors. It also harms society at large, as a less educated special ed population is likely to be able to contribute less in terms of taxes and level of work contribution to society.)

As a special education attorney, I agree with this take.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the people at Dept of Ed but I am not sure FCPS follows what they say. Having dealt with FCPS for years- I think they have been allowed to do whatever they want so not sure how this changes anything

I don’t think this will change much for wealthy states and districts, but people in poor, rural, or red states will be hit hard.

Wealthy districts screw over sped kids too and now will be able to do it even more freely without any oversight.

I am not sure how FCPS can do less. Like- they do nothing in the case of my child so can they really do worse?

Yes they can. There was a time before these laws were in place when kids with disabilities were shut out of school entirely. Now with zero enforcement, we'll see what they try to get away with.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ruh roh!

Who were those with the rose colored glasses that thought their child was going to get something good out of the changes in Washington.

If you aren't wealthy and what you need cost money, you are on your own.

I know some of you can afford it and maybe live in a state that won't let you down, but spare a thought to the other parents

Hard to take you seriously after “ruh roh.”

Pity

A sense of humor is linked with higher intelligence. I can understand you can't mentally access the information following "ruh roh."

https://www.psychologistworld.com/cognitive/black-humor-linked-to-high-intelligence-study

RUH ROH peak boomer energy

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Ruh roh!

Who were those with the rose colored glasses that thought their child was going to get something good out of the changes in Washington.

If you aren't wealthy and what you need cost money, you are on your own.

I know some of you can afford it and maybe live in a state that won't let you down, but spare a thought to the other parents

Hard to take you seriously after “ruh roh.”

Pity

A sense of humor is linked with higher intelligence. I can understand you can't mentally access the information following "ruh roh."

https://www.psychologistworld.com/cognitive/black-humor-linked-to-high-intelligence-study

RUH ROH peak boomer energy

Retro is in, honey

Never watched reruns?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I think the issue here is setting standards. If there is new research that comes along that could assist a child with disabilities it should be advanced: DOE I think would be the place.

But after the podcast ‘sold a story’ on how the reading industry took advantage of gullible teachers, I lost faith in any one group - besides parents - for monitoring material.

The issue remains the IDEA Act is still an unfunded federal mandate- so not sure anyone could force much on the states.

Feel bad for the folks who lost their positions. Hope they have family in another town.

Yes the reading industry was my first thought too. Similarly, I’m not sure we’re truly advancing special needs. I feel like teachers need to be supported more instead of being talked down to by ed tech and all these ivory tower phds who haven’t ever taught in classrooms.

Agree especially with your last sentiment. I hope the DOE survives this administration and I also hope that when it's over, the approach of the agency is more grounded in the hands on reality of teachers in classrooms, with a move away from ed tech and educational philosophies constructed by people who would never deign to teach children themselves.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the people at Dept of Ed but I am not sure FCPS follows what they say. Having dealt with FCPS for years- I think they have been allowed to do whatever they want so not sure how this changes anything

I don’t think this will change much for wealthy states and districts, but people in poor, rural, or red states will be hit hard.

I have a friend who's daughter purposely chose to teach special ed in a poorer area. The big issue is the school system where she is tries to convince people of color it's discrimination to get an IEP because too many people of color are being identified. So too many students who need the protection of the IEP don't get it. She accommodates those students anyway because it's the right thing to do, but those students will not be impacted by these changes at all. Most of the people I know in sped as teachers and as parents find the Department of Ed pretty useless.

I agree with the person who said what teachers need most is more support. hopefully of things move to the state level there will be more efficiency in making sure class sizes are reasonable and teachers have help and resources.

Agree.

Money needs to be allocated to raise the salary for 1st year teachers. We are seeing an all time low of students enrolled in education programs and one of the main reasons is money. They can't afford to live in the communities they teach...especially in this area. The result, we are getting educators from other countries who are less than qualified.

I am the person you are responding to, and you nailed it. Raise sped teacher salaries. They don't need people in fancy positions talking down to them and frankly I say this as a parent, we don't need more laws to be able to sue even more often. Raise sped salaries, decrease class sizes and decrease the red tape/paperwork and number of IEP meetings and I think we could see huge change. Sped teachers are burning out in droves and sometimes it's the worst ones who are like cockroaches. They survive anything and do more harm than good. I think some of these lawsuits do more harm than good too because the higher ups find a way to screw it up.

+1000

I’m in special education in mcps and it’s pretty sad that as this was being discussed during a team meeting yesterday, my colleagues and I immediately wondered (and hoped) these highly educated government employees out of a job would just come back to the schools in the DMV area because we are literally drowning here. Special education is a dying field and something needs to be done about it . As an educator I have such love and passion for what I do but I sadly could never ever recommend that a young person go into this field the way it is now

[Anonymous]

Good. Far too many resources across all levels of education are wasted on special education. It ends up benefiting administrators and edtech companies, not students.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Good. Far too many resources across all levels of education are wasted on special education. It ends up benefiting administrators and edtech companies, not students.

Agree. And I worked at ED. The article is unfairly characterizing the situation. OSERS wasn’t “gutted” - the article says “several people” were laid off (that’s not an “gut”) and most Sped teachers will tell you they NEVER have anything to do with OSERS. It’s just bureaucratic waste.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Well, this is what red states voted for so those parents better figure it out.

Yes, people voted for this, including I bet a lot of people with kids with special needs who will now be hurt by their own actions.

Unfortunately, a lot of us didn't vote for this and our kids will also be hurt too.

I truly hate the people who voted for this.

You hate everything so it’s meaningless.

I hate very few things. But MAGAs are definitely on the list.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Good. Far too many resources across all levels of education are wasted on special education. It ends up benefiting administrators and edtech companies, not students.

Agree. And I worked at ED. The article is unfairly characterizing the situation. OSERS wasn’t “gutted” - the article says “several people” were laid off (that’s not an “gut”) and most Sped teachers will tell you they NEVER have anything to do with OSERS. It’s just bureaucratic waste.

When did you work at ED and in which POC?

Special education teachers do not interact with OSERS staff. The people at the district who receive Title I funds do. Or: did.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the people at Dept of Ed but I am not sure FCPS follows what they say. Having dealt with FCPS for years- I think they have been allowed to do whatever they want so not sure how this changes anything

I don’t think this will change much for wealthy states and districts, but people in poor, rural, or red states will be hit hard.

Wealthy districts screw over sped kids too and now will be able to do it even more freely without any oversight.

I am not sure how FCPS can do less. Like- they do nothing in the case of my child so can they really do worse?

Yes they can. There was a time before these laws were in place when kids with disabilities were shut out of school entirely. Now with zero enforcement, we'll see what they try to get away with.

+1 it can get way worse

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I feel bad for the people at Dept of Ed but I am not sure FCPS follows what they say. Having dealt with FCPS for years- I think they have been allowed to do whatever they want so not sure how this changes anything

I don’t think this will change much for wealthy states and districts, but people in poor, rural, or red states will be hit hard.

OP here. This is exactly it.

But they are the ones who voted for this.