Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is way too large and horribly (and corruptly) managed. At some point maybe it will collapse of its own weight and be broken into smaller, more manageable districts but until then the disasters will just continue to pile up.

You think smaller districts don't have corruption and major problems too?

I’m in New Jersey which has notoriously small school districts - and excellent public schools and services.

Having been around both FCPS and this system, I can undoubtedly say the smaller districts have more advantageous and fewer issues.

Virginia law would have to be changed.

No doubt. But having experienced both, I absolutely am a fan of the hyper localized school system in NJ. The schools and public services are excellent and the administrations highly responsive to the local communities whose taxes finance them.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is way too large and horribly (and corruptly) managed. At some point maybe it will collapse of its own weight and be broken into smaller, more manageable districts but until then the disasters will just continue to pile up.

You think smaller districts don't have corruption and major problems too?

I’m in New Jersey which has notoriously small school districts - and excellent public schools and services.

Having been around both FCPS and this system, I can undoubtedly say the smaller districts have more advantageous and fewer issues.

PP is there a disparity in schools and services between richer and poorer districts?

Anonymous wrote:It seems like all FCPS focuses on now is special Ed. They just spent hours this week on special Ed, they had multiple long work sessions this fall on the special Ed audit and paid who knows home much for that study. Now they’re gearing up for more special Ed planning based on the results of that study. I guess this will just be another special Ed issue that the system focuses on. Forget about everyone else.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is way too large and horribly (and corruptly) managed. At some point maybe it will collapse of its own weight and be broken into smaller, more manageable districts but until then the disasters will just continue to pile up.

You think smaller districts don't have corruption and major problems too?

I’m in New Jersey which has notoriously small school districts - and excellent public schools and services.

Having been around both FCPS and this system, I can undoubtedly say the smaller districts have more advantageous and fewer issues.

Virginia law would have to be changed.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yup. I’m a lawyer. I can’t imagine telling my clients I can’t write the brief because I’m watching my kids.

Seriously? As a lawyer, you make the kind of salary where you can find a good sitter during a pandemic. No wonder teachers are leaving in droves. I am a mom of a child with autism and even she understands finances play a role here.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This was my first thought. I wouldn’t have wanted to be a special education teacher even before this. My other thought was that many other districts are probably in the same boat.

I’m concerned this will make things worse.

I don't think anyone is blaming the special ed teachers- they don't get support from FCPS leadership and it is the leadership that is making policy and curriculum decisions. I am glad OCR is trying to hold them accountable because it has been years of complaints to VA DOE and USDOE. Special Ed is not optional and FCPS has treated it that way.

It's going to fuel resentment when kids are placed in front of computers so that teachers can have time to comply with this agreement. Too bad the concept of FAPE doesn't exist outside of special education

Do you even know what FAPE stands for? Why would it need to exist outside of special education?

Do you understand that there are a finite number of hours in a day and when teachers have one group of students where everything has to be documented and another where no feedback or documentation is required, that one group will get no attention?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is way too large and horribly (and corruptly) managed. At some point maybe it will collapse of its own weight and be broken into smaller, more manageable districts but until then the disasters will just continue to pile up.

You think smaller districts don't have corruption and major problems too?

I’m in New Jersey which has notoriously small school districts - and excellent public schools and services.

Having been around both FCPS and this system, I can undoubtedly say the smaller districts have more advantageous and fewer issues.

PP is there a disparity in schools and services between richer and poorer districts?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:FCPS is way too large and horribly (and corruptly) managed. At some point maybe it will collapse of its own weight and be broken into smaller, more manageable districts but until then the disasters will just continue to pile up.

You think smaller districts don't have corruption and major problems too?

I’m in New Jersey which has notoriously small school districts - and excellent public schools and services.

Having been around both FCPS and this system, I can undoubtedly say the smaller districts have more advantageous and fewer issues.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This was my first thought. I wouldn’t have wanted to be a special education teacher even before this. My other thought was that many other districts are probably in the same boat.

I’m concerned this will make things worse.

It's going to fuel resentment when kids are placed in front of computers so that teachers can have time to comply with this agreement. Too bad the concept of FAPE doesn't exist outside of special education

Do you even know what FAPE stands for? Why would it need to exist outside of special education?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

Yup. I’m a lawyer. I can’t imagine telling my clients I can’t write the brief because I’m watching my kids.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

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.

This was my first thought. I wouldn’t have wanted to be a special education teacher even before this. My other thought was that many other districts are probably in the same boat.

I’m concerned this will make things worse.

It's going to fuel resentment when kids are placed in front of computers so that teachers can have time to comply with this agreement. Too bad the concept of FAPE doesn't exist outside of special education

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Having all those meetings is a colossal waste
of time.
"Compensatory time" can't happen with no staff.
Can they use ESSR money and just cut families checks to pay for private services?

No one is getting “checks.”