The Virginia Department of Education (VDOE) has created a guidance document from a white supremacy lens that contains subtle but numerous embedded racial insults and microaggression that wrongfully reinforce flawed and harmful stereotypes about communities with cultural differences.
A person's race is a “social construct,” not brain function, and should not be used to cause roadblocks. The lack of diplomacy used in creating this guidance is startling.
The VDOE falsely claims the guidance documents meet the recommendations from the Audit and Review Commission.
The Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) identified and articulated what parents and advocates have been saying for years. The VDOE has failed in its duties to enforce and provide sufficient oversight to protect the rights of parents and students with disabilities.
Page 10
Consider Cultural, Linguistic and Socio-Economic Differences
Teams should consider the impact of cultural and linguistic differences and socio-economic factors on student performance when determining whether a disability is suspected.
Some examples of differences that may impact a student’s learning and engagement in school include:
? Cultural expectations of formal schooling or of school in general
? Different cultural norms (e.g., developmental milestone expectations)
? Transiency in education (e.g., at least two moves in a single school year or teacher changes)
? Responsibilities at home
? Socio-economic factors
? Primary language other than English
? Level of academic language proficiency
? Use of a dialect or variety of English other than Standard American English
? Exposure to trauma
? Access to structured activities or learning and practice opportunities
Access to nurturing relationships or interactions
? Family access to health care and other social determinants of health
These statements are vague, racially inaccurate, insensitive, and perpetuate a false narrative about BIPOC families and the BIPOC community!
The statements do not provide a “clear” or even accurate definition of what “environmental, cultural, or economic factors” are and how they would cause a student not to be eligible for special education and related services.
Page 19
“Teams should discuss the impact of regional dialectal differences, common family or cultural customs, lack of practice, and other factors that, while appropriate for the individual student, may result in a lower score due to inappropriate comparison with the test norming population.”
The VDOE is disingenuous in the above statement. The testing companies have developed evaluations tools that address appropriate norming. Test like The Preschool Language Scales-5 Spanish Screening Test for Early Childhood Educators (PLS-5) is designed to evaluate a broad spectrum of speech and language skills for Spanish-speaking children.
The VDOE should instead require Teams to use cross-cultural standardized tests when assessing language, intelligence, and cognitive abilities with culturally different individuals.
The special educational teams in Virginia lack the skill and expertise to discuss a students’ cultural experience. Black students attending Virginia public schools already don’t have access to equitable treatment. In Virginia, black students with and without disabilities are disproportionately expelled, suspended, restrained, and secluded.
This guidance will prevent and interfere with black, brown, and English learners with neurological disorders from getting services needed because of the embedded racism and subjectivity within this guidance. Advocating 4 Kids, Inc supports ALL other comments that oppose the guidance document.
Cheryl A Poe