U.S. Department of Education to Investigate VA Dept. of Education's Response to Fairfax County Public Schools Civil Rights Violations; What Actions Has VDOE Taken With "Similar" Districts?
United States Department of Education (USDOE) Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) announced its continued investigation into Virginia Department of Education will include examining VDOE's "response to the Department’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) findings that Fairfax County Public Schools failed or was unable to provide a free appropriate public education to thousands of students with services identified in the students’ individualized education programs during remote learning. Specifically, OSEP would like to learn about the actions the State has taken, or plans to take, with similarly situated districts in light of these findings."
The announcement came in a May 12, 2023, letter from Valerie Williams, director of OSEP, to Lisa Coons, VDOE's new superintendent of public instruction and is a follow up to OSEP's February 17, 2023, letter to Coon's predecessor Jillian Balow, which announced OSEP would be conducting additional monitoring activities, to include an on-site investigation. According to the May 12 letter, the on-site will occur during the week of September 25, 2023.
In addition to examining VDOE's response to OCR's findings, Williams states OSEP will review the following IDEA requirements:
(1) general supervision procedures for the identification and correction of noncompliance (34 C.F.R. §§ 300.149 and 300.600);
(2) State complaint policies, procedures, and practices (34 C.F.R. §§ 300.151 through 300.153);
(3) due process complaint and hearing procedures (34 C.F.R. §§ 300.507 through 300.516);
(4) independent educational evaluation policies, procedures, and practices (34 C.F.R. § 300.502); and
(5) confidentiality of information procedures, particularly parent consent before the disclosure of personally identifiable information (34 C.F.R. §§ 300.611 through 300.626).