Legal Services of Northern Virginia supports and shares in the comments of the Virginia Office for Protection and Advocacy (VOPA).  Those comments, which consist of 30 pages, can be found at http://www.vopa.virginia.gov/NEWS/VOPA%20Comments%20Final.pdf   Consistent with those comments, please take note of the following points:

1.   The age range for "development delay" should be extended to age 9 as allowed by federal regulations.

2.   A "functional behavioral assessment" should be defined as an "evaluation" to ensure parental participation in planning this assessment and to provide for the right to an independent educational evaluation if the parent disagrees with the assessment.

3.   The Virginia Department of Education should not assume control of due process hearings; the Virginia Supreme Court is in a better position to maintain the impartiality and integrity of the hearing process.

4.  The current regulations governing referrals from a child study committee should be maintained to allow parents to participate in the screening process.

5. The federal requirement of 60 calendar days for an LEA to complete an evaluation should be adopted as it provides ample time for a an evaluation.

6.  All proposed regulations that remove or reduce parental consent rights should be eliminated from the Draft Regulations.  (See LSNV Comments previously posted to this Town Hall website.)

7.  Benchmarks and short-term objectives should be required for all students because they help parents and teachers monitor a child's progress toward annual IEP goals.

8.  When children transfer to a new school division, the new school division should implement their IEP until a new IEP is signed by the parent.

9.  Timeframes in the current regulations for screening students for disabilities and for implementing an IEP should be maintained beause they are not overly burdensome and are important to effective educational outcomes. 

10.  The proposal to give school divisions up to one year to correct a noncompliance identified through due process or court is too long and should be rejected in favor of a more reasonable timeframe such as 45 days as suggested by VOPA.

LSNV gratefully acknowledges the time and effort of the VDOE in this revision process.   With the above changes and others as described by VOPA, Virginia will be able to maintain its tradition of strong parental engagement in the special education process.

Respectfully submitted,

Nancy Tubbs, Esq.