Covid 19 Impact on Public Education: De Vos takes high road leaving (IDEA and the Rehabilitation Act) untouched

Covid 19 Impact on Public Education: De Vos takes high road leaving (IDEA and the Rehabilitation Act) untouched. As a result we must still wait to see what States and School Districts agree to provide compensatory education services to those enrolled in special education programs. 

U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos will not seek changes to the central tenets of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

In a report to Congress released late Monday, DeVos recommended that lawmakers consider what the Department of Education called “additional flexibilities on administrative requirements.”

But, DeVos said in the 18-page document that her agency “is not requesting waiver authority for any of the core tenets of the IDEA or Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, most notably a free appropriate public education (FAPE) in the least restrictive environment (LRE).”

The report came at the request of Congress, which as part of a federal stimulus law approved in late March, gave DeVos 30 days to provide recommendations for any waivers she thought necessary under IDEA to “provide limited flexibility” to states and school districts during the emergency.

Disability advocates were unequivocal that they thought no waivers were needed even as most of the nation’s schools remained shuttered. But, groups representing school administrators had reasoned that given the extraordinary circumstances, temporary modifications were justified.

“We undertook this task acknowledging the reality that most students and teachers are at home today; yet, America’s teachers want to keep teaching and students need to keep learning,” DeVos said in a statement. “While the department has provided extensive flexibility to help schools transition, there is no reason for Congress to waive any provision designed to keep students learning. With ingenuity, innovation and grit, I know this nation’s educators and schools can continue to faithfully educate every one of its students.”

The Education Department said that the recommendations were rooted in several key principles including that learning must continue for all students, decision-making should be based on what’s best for students, parents must be informed of how waivers would impact their kids and services that have traditionally been provided in-person will have to be done differently.

“The secretary determined there is no reason that a student’s access to FAPE cannot continue online, through distance education or other alternative strategies,” the agency said in an announcement about the report.

DeVos is recommending that Congress allow her agency waiver authority to ensure that children with disabilities can continue receiving services after they turn 3 if the pandemic delays an evaluation that’s supposed to happen at that juncture. The secretary is also seeking changes to requirements of IDEA personnel development scholarships and more flexibility in funding for vocational rehabilitation.

“I am pleasantly surprised that it appears that the secretary did not succumb to pressure and chose the high road to leave the important provisions of both (IDEA and the Rehabilitation Act) untouched,” said Denise Stile Marshall, CEO of the Council of Parent Attorneys and Advocates, or COPAA, a nonprofit that represents special education attorneys.

Officials with AASA, The School Superintendents Association, as well as the National Association of State Directors of Special Education and the Council of Administrators of Special Education — which had all pushed for temporary IDEA flexibilities — did not immediately offer comment on the report.

Education and Special Needs: Covid 19 You Still Have Rights

The rights of our kids are at risk. Decisions are being made now that will impact special needs education beyond this current pandemic. Please share and join if you can.

Accessing Education, Services, and Health Care during the Coronavirus Crisis

You Still Have Rights: Accessing Education, Services, and Health Care during the Coronavirus Crisis Friday, April 10/Viernes, 1 de abril 2-4 pm Individuals with disabilities still maintain their rights during this difficult time, including the right to not being discriminated against in health care and education. Join us for this week’s webinar with experts who will explain the rights of people with disabilities during this time. In addition, Disability Voices United will release preliminary results from their survey on the current needs of people with disabilities.  Presenters include: Andy Imparato, Executive Director, Disability Rights California Tauna Szymanski, Executive Director and Legal Director, Communication First Judy Mark, President, Disability Voices United More presenters to be announced Click at 2 pm on April 10th to view Zoom webinar/Haga clic en el enlace el 10 de abril a las 2 pm para ver el webinar en Zoom This webinar will be conducted via Zoom. Here is how you can participate: By computer using video: click on this link: https://zoom.us/j/103799431. Note: if you have never used Zoom before on your computer, you should go in beforehand to download the app at zoom.us By cell phone or tablet with video: You must download app, see link below. At time of call, go into app and click on "Join." Type in the Webinar ID - 103 799 431 By cell phone with voice only: just tap here: +16699006833,,103799431# By landline phone: 1-669-900-6833. Enter ID: 103 799 431 This webinar will have simultaneous translation in Spanish through a conference call line. Be aware: this webinar will have several English-language visual presentations. You will not be able to see them if you only call in. You will also not be able to access Zoom's question and answer function. We are working on an alternative for people who call in to ask questions. For simultaneous Spanish interpretation: Call 515-604-9835 and enter the access code 245384#.  Este webinar se realizará por el sistema de conferencia por internet Zoom. Estas son las maneras en las que puede participar: Por computadora usando video: haga clic en este enlace: https://zoom.us/j/103799431. Nota: si nunca ha usado Zoom en su computadora, debe descargar antes la app de zoom.us Por teléfono celular o tableta con video: Debe descargar una aplicación, vea el enlace a continuación. A la hora de la llamada, vaya a la aplicación, y haga clic en "Join" (Entrar a una reunión). Escriba el ID de reunión: 103 799 431 Por teléfono celular en inglés solo con servicio de voz (sin video), haga clic aquí: +16699006833,,103799431# Por línea telefónica fija (inglés): 1-669-900-6833. Ingrese el ID: 103 799 431 Se ofrecerá interpretación simultánea al español a través de una línea de teleconferencia aparte (todos los participantes estarán en modo silencioso y solo es para escuchar la traducción al español). Debe tener en cuenta: este webinar tendrá muchas presentaciones visuales en inglés. No podrá verlas si solo llama por teléfono. Tampoco podrá hacer preguntas a través de Zoom. Estamos buscando una solución para que las personas que solo participen por teléfono puedan hacer preguntas. Para escuchar la interpretación simultánea al español: Llame al 515-604-9835 e ingrese el código de acceso 245384#. Download Zoom App for Cell Phones and Tablets/Descargue la aplicación Zoom App para celulares y tabletas How are you doing during the coronavirus pandemic shutdown? Are you or your family member getting the services and supports you need? Take this survey for self-advocates and family members on the coronavirus outbreak to let us know what the needs of our community are Encuesta sobre la epidemia de coronavirus para personas con discapacidad que abogan por sí mismas y familiares The purpose of this survey is to see how people with disabilities are doing during the coronavirus epidemic. We will use this information for our advocacy to ensure that individuals and families are supported during this crisis. El propósito de esta encuesta es ver cómo está la situación de las personas con discapacidades durante la epidemia de coronavirus. Answer the survey in English Responda a la encuesta en espanol Resource website on coronavirus Sitio web con recursos sobre coronavirus If you need more information about coronavirus and its impact on people with disabilities, visit our website. Visit the website in English Si necesita más información sobre coronavirus y su impacto en las personas con discapacidades, visite nuestro sitio web. Visite el sitio web en español To share on social media, use this link. Para compartir en las redes sociales, use esta enlace. Disability Voices United works for: Choice and control over our lives Meaningful outcomes that matter to us Systems that are equitable and accountable to us Please consider donating today to support our important work! Donate Visit DVU's Website Join Visit the Interchanges on Self-Determination and Communications Rights ‌ ‌

Here's How Secretary of Education, DeVos will Destroy Special Needs Programs

One of Betsy DeVos' favorite programs makes special-needs kids give up federal benefits

·         Writer: Chris Weller

School-voucher programs — systems in which public funds are diverted to help kids attend private schools — are contentious for a number of reasons.

Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos has been a vocal advocate for voucher programs, but critics say they can drain funds from public schools, increase rates of segregation, and, according to some research, offer few actual benefits to the students who use them.

For parents, vouchers create a more immediate dilemma: In many states, special-needs kids who use vouchers must surrender the federal protections afforded to them by the Individuals With Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

These benefits include certain legal protections if a child acts out in school, a guarantee to receive an education on par with a public-school student, and protections regarding the teacher's qualifications.

It's a paradox that often eliminates the desire to use the voucher, and one that sees many students returning to public school within a few years, according to the New York Times.

"The private schools are not breaking the law," special-education lawyer Julie Weatherly told the Times. In several states, including Colorado, Arizona, Mississippi, and Oklahoma, private schools are free to make it a condition of attending the school that parents and kids must waive their federal rights.

In other states, schools are free to decide for themselves, as the law makes no mention one way or another.

Secretary DeVos has held up school vouchers as an example of "school choice," or the ability for parents to pluck their kids from a public school and drop them in a private or home school. On several occasions, she has compared the value of picking schools in a free market to the luxury of choosing Uber or Lyft over a taxi.

The laws regarding special-needs vouchers may signal a roadblock in making education more like a private good.

In Wisconsin, for example, these vouchers cost public school districts $2.4 million in state aid. The money helped fund 202 students with disabilities to attend private schools. Critics of the Wisconsin voucher program, such as the family coalition Stop Special Needs Vouchers, arguethe laws leave private schools free to ignore IDEA's protections, which makes voucher programs less effective yet still costly to taxpayers and possibly detrimental to public schools.

Proponents of vouchers make similar arguments as DeVos and President Trump. In the most conventional view, vouchers give parents the freedom to place their children where they'll learn best. Advocates say the long-term effect is a system in which kids are sorted more effectively, with fewer wasted costs.

Mark Dynarski, an education researcher and voucher expert, says vouchers are still a fairly minor force in American education. On a yearly basis, waves of kids move in and out of a given public school due to changes of address — and they do so at rates far exceeding those of vouchers.

"Given the kinds of waves happening inside schools," Dynarski recently told Business Insider, "it's hard to see how vouchers actually cause the school to stop what they're doing and say, 'We need a plan to respond.'"

The Single Most Important Thing You Need To Know About The Womens March

Women March Downtown Los Angeles

Taxation without representation. Today women make up 51% of the U.S. population and ONLY 19% of congress - this is taxation without representation. 

The march was an uplifting event in support of women and women's rights and issues of importance to women. The numbers of women in attendance proved women feel marginalized in today's America and are deeply concerned about their rights in the future. And that is why women showed up by the hundreds of thousands all around the world, to demand to be heard!

Secondarily, the natural consequence of being for something is rejection of anyone or anything real or perceived that would seek to remove, violate, or minimize those rights as seen by each unique individual in attendance. As a minority, a woman, a mom, a daughter, a sister, a business owner, a working mom, a friend of women and the mom of a child with disabilities I was there because women have to be represented in America. Today women make up 51% of the U.S. population and ONLY 19% of congress - this is taxation without representation.  This is why I stayed up and knitted pink hats, took my kids, and fought all of the transportation challenges of the day. So glad I got to be there and showed my daughter what democracy looks like in the USA. God Bless America!

So happy to be there with my children and friends

Teachers Call Trumps Billionaire Education Secretary Nominee Public Education Enemy #1

Trump nominee for Education Secretary faces fierce criticism from teachers unions that she is working against public education. 

This belief was reinforced when billionaire Betsy DeVos - dubbed public school enemy # 1 -  refused to answer important direct questions critical to people with limited financial resources and those with disabilities. And perhaps most surprising response came when questioned by Senator Chris Murphy of Connecticut the safety of our children in school. Her response on having guns in schools; guns in schools could 'protect from potential grizzlies' . 

When asked does she agree that schools who receive federal funding be held to the federal law? Specifically of IDEA (Individuals with disabilities act), bullying and violence? She was nonresponsive and when pushed,  finally said she would leave bullying to the states and she never responded to the question on IDEA.  When asked if vouchers - a program she has championed - would be made available to children enrolled in both special education and general education, she did not respond, rather she skirted the question and referred to a scholarship program in Florida. 

My question now is, how does someone seeking the highest education post in the United States, and a critical post for the future of this country not have a response to these legal, ethical and moral questions?

Asked outright by Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont whether she got the job because of her family's political contributions, DeVos said: "As a matter of fact I do think that there would be that possibility. I have worked very hard on behalf of parents and children for the last almost 30 years."

On tuition-free public colleges and universities, DeVos said: "I think we also have to consider the fact that there is nothing in life that is truly free. Somebody is going to pay for it."

She skirted Sanders' question on whether she would support making childcare free or much more affordable for low-income families as is the case in many countries, saying only that she felt strongly about "parents having opportunities for childcare for their children."  

"But it's not a question of opportunity," Sanders fired back, raising his voice. "It's a question of being able to afford it!"

Responding to fierce criticism from teachers unions that she is working against public education, DeVos told the committee that she would be "a strong advocate for great public schools."

"But," she added, "if a school is troubled, or unsafe, or not a good fit for a child — perhaps they have a special need that is going unmet — we should support a parent's right to enroll their child in a high-quality alternative."

Ethics and morality play a role in education, and it seems to me Ms. DeVos is unclear on her position when it comes to those less fortunate then herself.