Action | Revisions to comply with the “Individuals with Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004” and its federal implementing regulations. |
Stage | Proposed |
Comment Period | Ended on 6/30/2008 |
Good Evening. My name is Sue Sargeant. I speak tonight on behalf of The Arc of Rappahannock which supports persons with developmental and intellectual
Disabilities, the Virginia Education Association, and the Fairfax County Advisory Committee for Students with Disabilities). Due to time constraints of this public comment, I will highlight just a few issues.
Virginia is a good supporter of young children. Look at how we go above federal requirement and are the only state to begin public education for our 2 yr olds with developmental delays. Let’s continue to do the right thing for our young children and do it the Virginia way. The Virginia way is to go above and beyond and Governor Kaine is right there with us with “Virginia
Leading the Way”. Keep the DD option and make it align with IDEA with the age range of 5-9 yrs old.
It does not matter that Fairfax or Loudoun, have already been limiting their age range to the 2-5s so those of us in other LEAs should just go along with
VDOE has no data, longitudinal included, for a hypothesis that cutting out the DD option for the 5-8s cuts down on dispropor rep of African American boys in sped. Why not look at more in-class non-sped supports for teachers so we can keep our children in the general ed classroom where they can access the content and where they BELONG’. Why not just tell teachers that they aren’t going to take a hit if students in their class don’t pass the SOLs and their school misses AYP?
Paperwork. We’re always going to have paperwork in sped. Cutting
So yes, we in VA go above and beyond on parent consent and involvement provisions because it is the RIGHT THING TO DO. It is THE RIGHT THING TO DO , to maintain those provisions as well as current sped regs because we, service providers and parents, want to walk hand in hand as partners in educational planning decisions for OUR children and OUR students with disabilities.
Thank you for listening to the hundreds of parents and advocates throughout the Commonwealth who support the platforms of The Arc of Virginia, VOPA and Virginia Education Association.