Virginia Legislature Earmarks $100,000 for Review of Special Education Dispute Resolution System

The Virginia General Assembly proposed in its budget an outside review of the state’s special education dispute resolution system, through legislation designed to address compliance concerns raised by the federal government and parents.

Lawmakers are proposing to direct $100,000 to the Virginia Commission on Youth to hire a consultant to examine the dispute resolution system, which has been criticized for failing to monitor and respond to complaints against school districts. The governor is expected to complete his review of the state budget, which includes the funding request, when lawmakers return to Richmond on April 17.

Va. lawmakers consider sweeping changes to special education

“This resolution is a piece of the puzzle of how we ensure that our families in Virginia are getting the services that they need,” and are able to seek accountability when they don’t or if they feel like the system isn’t working correctly, said Del. Carrie Coyner, R-Chesterfield, who, along with Sen. Barbara Favola, D-Arlington, carried legislation to improve the state’s provision of special education services.

Favola, the commission’s chair, said including the budget request was key.

“Our goal has got to be to work towards improvement, not to blame the school system, not to deny the kids services either. It [has] to provide a pathway forward where the child could gain more success,” Favola said.

As federal law requires, Virginia must provide all students with disabilities a “free and appropriate public education” through personalized plans under the Individualized Education Program. Nearly 181,000 students with disabilities currently receive this service, an increase of almost 7,000 students from a year ago.

Through an ongoing investigation that began in 2019, the U.S. Department of Education found that Virginia repeatedly failed to resolve complaints filed by parents and did not have “reasonably designed” procedures and practices to ensure a timely resolution process for those complaints.

Separately, individual districts have also come under federal scrutiny for how they handled the special education needs of students with disabilities. The U.S. Department of Education determined in November that Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia’s largest school district, failed to provide thousands of students with disabilities with the educational services they were entitled to during remote learning at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 2020, the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission, the state’s legislative watchdog, also came to similar findings in its report and recommended the state department change how it deals with special education complaints by requiring school divisions to carry out “corrective actions that fully and appropriately remedy any found instances of school non-compliance.”

In that study, JLARC found that the education department had not fully committed to fixing reported instances of schools not complying with federal standards.

Many parents of students with disabilities told researchers that they were not being adequately informed of the state-level resources available to them for resolving disputes with their child’s school.

According to JLARC, of the 281 parents who had unresolved cases in 2020, 73% said their school division did not explain the state-level dispute resolution options available to them if they could not resolve the matter with their local school district.

In addition, 39% of 510 parents who had either a resolved or unresolved dispute with their school or school division about special education within the prior three years said they did not pursue a state-level dispute resolution option through VDOE because they were unaware such an option existed.

JLARC said one reason for the lingering disputes was that VDOE rarely required school divisions to provide compensatory services to students when it determined the school divisions did not comply with federal standards. VDOE would instead direct school divisions to hold  IEP team meetings to discuss any compensatory service needs and to submit evidence to VDOE of having done so. When resolutions weren’t resolved, the department advised parents to seek further dispute resolution through mediation or due process hearings.

However, it appears few parents who pursued that method were successful.

Between 2010 and 2021, Virginia parents who initiated a due process hearing “received a favorable hearing” in only 13 of 847 cases, according to a 2022 federal class action lawsuit. The suit claimed the state and Fairfax County School Board violated the rights of disabled students under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act. The case was dismissed in July.

JLARC also found that the department relies heavily on school divisions’ self-reported data to assess overall state compliance and performance. Between 2016-2020, only 22 of 132 school divisions have been subject to an on-site review.

Last year, the VDOE announced a new workgroup to help develop the 2024 Roadmap for Special Education, a plan devised following external evaluations by two experts.

The plan outlines the creation of a team that reports directly to the state’s superintendent of public instruction, to monitor how school divisions provide special education services and assist them as needed.

Further legislative recommendations

Gov. Glenn Youngkin will now consider the $100,000 budget request as part of legislation proposed by Favola and Coyner that  suggests extensive changes to improve how the state provides special education services, as Virginia continues to address compliance with federal law.

The measure calls for the state to create a system to oversee the development and use of IEPs for students with special needs. It would also require more training for educators on how to provide inclusive special education instruction.

Additionally, the legislation provides $4.4 million over the next two years to establish eight regional special education family support centers, to provide professional development opportunities to school staff, and to enable ongoing special education coaching at schools.

by Nathaniel Cline, Virginia Mercury

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