Public Testimony on the Proposed Revision of the Regulations Governing Special Education Programs for Children with Disabilities in Virginia

 June 2, 2008

        Thank you for your time and the opportunity to testify tonight.  My name is Sheree Brown Kaplan.  I am the parent of two children with disabilities and the incoming chair of the Fairfax County Council of PTAs Special Education Committee.  I am here to express my deep concern about the proposed revision of Virginia’s special education regulations and the threat it presents to long-held rights and protections that current regulations guarantee.

        My children, ages 6 and 13, have received special education services through Fairfax County Public Schools since being found eligible during their early preschool years.  I consider both of them to be poster children for the effectiveness of proper early intervention and special education services.  While their levels of function and performance in school have vastly improved over the years, my children still need services to be successful.  The proposed revision of Virginia’s special education regulations threatens my children’s hard-won success and that of thousands of other students with disabilities across the Commonwealth.

        The proposed regulations compromise Virginia’s commitment to all children with disabilities and dismantle the parent-school partnership at the heart of the success of its special education programs.

• First, the proposal eliminates Virginia’s long-standing “Child Study Committees”—which ensure uniform, state-wide procedures in the screening process—and makes it much more difficult for parents to refer children with disabilities for services. 

• Second, the proposed regulations inappropriately add stringent criteria for finding students eligible and will deprive many children the vital services they need. 

• Third, the proposal adversely affects an eligible child’s right to an appropriate Individualized Education Program by:
  • Enabling schools to deny a parent’s request for an IEP team meeting if the school deems it “unreasonable,”
  • Permitting schools to provide less frequent IEP progress reports, and
  • No longer requiring schools to make a good faith effort to assist a child in achieving their IEP goals.

• Finally—and of greatest concern—the proposed regulations enable schools to partially or completely terminate special education services without parental consent, a long-held right of parents in Virginia.

        Governor Kaine—in keeping with his motto “Virginia Leading the Way”—has expressed public support for maintaining parent involvement in special education.  I agree with the Governor.  I urge you to reject any revision that demolishes or diminishes the parent-school partnership that Virginia has championed.  I ask not that you add new rights and protections for parents, but that you do not take away any that exist in current regulation.  To that end, please adopt the recommendations of the Fairfax County Council of PTAs and the Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy.