I would like to add my voice of suppport to the changes proposed by The Colition. I feel that removing parental consent for termination of Special Education services is a negative as tests  and evaluations showing that children  no longer need special education services can be wrong. This removes the concept of parents being part of the IEP team. Parents can give additional information not received by testing alone.  I also feel that a Child Study team should be retained to aid in the evaluation of children who may need special services in school. i feel that having to develop, implement and maintain possible many RTI's in a single class is a large burden for teachers to bear. I am also not sure about RTI's as little information is provided regarding the development, implementation and use  in a classroom setting is available in this document.

I appreciate that Virginia is proactive in both starting services at 2 and starting transition services at 14. Teenagers esp. those with ASD can aften become discouraged by the social millieu in middle adn early high school. Having input into their future and takng into account what they want to acheive may help them be more interested in their own education.  Oftentimes, these children do not lack intelligence to do school wrok, their disability lies in the social realm. They often have a pretty clear vision of what they like and want to do.

I do feel that VDOE employees should not be crucial members inany diputes and that school board employees retain an advisory capability only on the local special education advisory committees. Thank you.