US Department of Education coming after VDOE

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the number of IEPs continues to rise, and children have two types of disabilities, visible and invisible. The US and most local school systems do a good, but not perfect, job at supporting children with visible disabilities. So, I will focus on those with invisible or hidden disabilities, those with ADHD, executive function disorders, and those with behavioral issues that cause frequent and sometimes violent disruption in the school setting.

Organizations have to deal with Government driven unfunded mandates all the time. The cost for providing accommodations for many students with IEPs, such as extra time on tests, assignments, teacher's notes, etc., are both reasonable and relatively inexpensive to implement. Sure, some people will get these accommodations without needing them but again not at a great cost to the school system.

Unfortunately, some students are so disruptive that costs to support them are high, and perhaps a better way to handle these kids, outside of the current public-school structure is the best path for all concerned. Going the lawyer route to fight everything is where costs skyrocket for no good reason. School systems need to get on board and provide appropriate accommodations.

Like it or not, believe it or not, national and other teachers unions and inept leadership via school boards and superintendents is what is making this process worse. Not the front line special educational teachers and other school staff that are providing support services to the children on a day-to-day basis.

As other posters have said or implied, with the current path the public education system is on, the only students that will be in public schools are those with IEPs or cannot afford private schools.

Hogwash. Only the right wing parents are looking to escape the democratic values displayed in public schools. Despite your constant messages that the sky is falling, the vast majority of parents are very happy with their schools in Fairfax, Loudoun, Montgomery, etc.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Special ed is going to bleed public schools dry until the Rs get their way and we all go to religious private schools.

Maybe if public schools didn't treat special education like a leper colony and then waste big $$$ on lawyers to fight parents then they'd be less likely to have the feds breathing down their neck.

The lawyers are cheaper than meeting an impossible federal mandate. Maybe if every UMC parent whose kid can't behave didn't rush out and get a diagnosis and an IEP the resources available could go to the kids who need them

DP. Tell me you don't understand the IEP process without telling me you don't understand the IEP process.

UMC parents don't "rush out" to get diagnoses. In my experience, most parents want to avoid labels and diagnoses, especially early on when they start to suspect problems. And public schools do not have to accept a private diagnosis and often try to avoid accepting them because it adds to their caseloads and liability because special ed is underfunded.

I don't blame any family for holding a school accountable for not providing FAPE. Holding a school accountable often improves things for other kids whose parents may have less knowledge and resources. See the DOJ settlement against APS for example.

Sadly, there are some abuses of the system. In wealthy areas like suburban NYC, some parents seek out diagnoses so their kids can get extra time on standardized tests. A WSJ article noted that 20% of kids in one Westchester high school had accommodations for extra time. Many of these accommodations were based on genuine need. But apparently, not all.
https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/05/22/who-gets-extra-time-sat-affluent

Probably about 20% of kids do need extra time on tests because of adhd, dyslexia or other learning disabilities.


TBH More families should know that extra time is available to their SWDs but they often don’t. This is an accommodation that has almost no cost for a school.

At my kid's huge, overcrowded high school, the number of kids who get these accommodations is very small.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the number of IEPs continues to rise, and children have two types of disabilities, visible and invisible. The US and most local school systems do a good, but not perfect, job at supporting children with visible disabilities. So, I will focus on those with invisible or hidden disabilities, those with ADHD, executive function disorders, and those with behavioral issues that cause frequent and sometimes violent disruption in the school setting.

Organizations have to deal with Government driven unfunded mandates all the time. The cost for providing accommodations for many students with IEPs, such as extra time on tests, assignments, teacher's notes, etc., are both reasonable and relatively inexpensive to implement. Sure, some people will get these accommodations without needing them but again not at a great cost to the school system.

Unfortunately, some students are so disruptive that costs to support them are high, and perhaps a better way to handle these kids, outside of the current public-school structure is the best path for all concerned. Going the lawyer route to fight everything is where costs skyrocket for no good reason. School systems need to get on board and provide appropriate accommodations.

Like it or not, believe it or not, national and other teachers unions and inept leadership via school boards and superintendents is what is making this process worse. Not the front line special educational teachers and other school staff that are providing support services to the children on a day-to-day basis.

As other posters have said or implied, with the current path the public education system is on, the only students that will be in public schools are those with IEPs or cannot afford private schools.

Hogwash. Only the right wing parents are looking to escape the democratic values displayed in public schools. Despite your constant messages that the sky is falling, the vast majority of parents are very happy with their schools in Fairfax, Loudoun, Montgomery, etc.

OK, clearly there are a number of factors in play such as a decline in the number of school age children, residual impacts of COVID, etc., but public-school enrollments are trending down at the same time private school attendance is trending upward.

Glad that you are happy with your public-school opportunities, and I am sure that there are parents that are happy with their local public-school systems as well, and that some simply have no viable alternative available. The sky is not falling, and I am sure there are excellent public-school systems around the country. But if you read the tone and tenor of the discussions on this site the trend is increasingly negative in nature.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Yes, the number of IEPs continues to rise, and children have two types of disabilities, visible and invisible. The US and most local school systems do a good, but not perfect, job at supporting children with visible disabilities. So, I will focus on those with invisible or hidden disabilities, those with ADHD, executive function disorders, and those with behavioral issues that cause frequent and sometimes violent disruption in the school setting.

Organizations have to deal with Government driven unfunded mandates all the time. The cost for providing accommodations for many students with IEPs, such as extra time on tests, assignments, teacher's notes, etc., are both reasonable and relatively inexpensive to implement. Sure, some people will get these accommodations without needing them but again not at a great cost to the school system.

Unfortunately, some students are so disruptive that costs to support them are high, and perhaps a better way to handle these kids, outside of the current public-school structure is the best path for all concerned. Going the lawyer route to fight everything is where costs skyrocket for no good reason. School systems need to get on board and provide appropriate accommodations.

Like it or not, believe it or not, national and other teachers unions and inept leadership via school boards and superintendents is what is making this process worse. Not the front line special educational teachers and other school staff that are providing support services to the children on a day-to-day basis.

As other posters have said or implied, with the current path the public education system is on, the only students that will be in public schools are those with IEPs or cannot afford private schools.

Hogwash. Only the right wing parents are looking to escape the democratic values displayed in public schools. Despite your constant messages that the sky is falling, the vast majority of parents are very happy with their schools in Fairfax, Loudoun, Montgomery, etc.

So only the children of right wing parents are in private schools? And only the children of left wing parents are in public? And only public schools teach "democratic values"? Someone needs to tell that to the parents in Alexandria. I think a lot of the left wing parents who send their kids to private schools would be shocked to learn that they are, in fact, right wingers.

Wow - this post is the reason logic and reasoning need to be taught in all schools.

[Anonymous]

The former ACPS superintendent who is far far left wing pulled his kid from public and sent his kid to private school (he said in a school board meeting it was because she'd learned how to work the system and was getting Ds). The former ACPS school board chair, also very far left, sends her kids to private school. The TAG director at ACPS sends her kids to private school (she pulled them out of ACPS). She is very far left wing.

The vast majority of my left wing neighbors (85% of voters in Alexandria are Democrats most very far left), who are rabidly anti-school choice, send their kids to private. Many pulled them out of public schools during covid.