The proposed changes to VAs SPED regs   --   WHY?     

The message Va's parents have always and still do hear proudly  trumpeted and publicized throughout VAs school districts(SDs)  and in all the SD communications and Va's print and broadcast media is "Parents Should Be Involved!!" ...  "We Welcome Parents Into Our Schools"   "Your Child's Success Depends on Your (Parental) Involvement!"  --  This is the same message clearly conveyed in our Federal government's media, too.  Yet, this is not the message that many (daresay most) parents of learning or physically disabled children in Virginia's schools hear, see, or experience in the real world of public education.  Quite the contrary.  And what do their children - the (SPED) students experience?  Are they as welcomed, accepted and "involved" as the idealistic banners proclaim their parents to be?  Parents continue to hope that the VDOE and the school districts will do the right thing by their children, and ensure they're included and welcomed into the school experience and to do and learn with their same-age peers to their honest best ability.  It seems the undeniable message , the undercurrent, that comes through w/  the proposed regs changes is contradictory,  and is that VDOE/VBOE perhaps doesn't really support the idea of parental involvement afterall?  

Instead of at least upholding current standards and trying harder to hold those (albeit, griping) SDs,  administrators or service providers to (current) standards which allow some semblence of social justice and equal educational opportunity to disadvantaged youth (on acct. of disability)  --you would lower standards by placating frustrated SD admins or staff who feel they do too much,  and that "they would appreciate it if VDOE would lighten their workload"? -- as one previous related services provider so boldly exclaimed in these Townhall comments, "It's Your DUTY, VDOE, to MAKE SURE WE DON'T DO ANYTHING "THE FED REGS SAY WE DON'T HAVE TO " (I.E., make sure we don't have to do anything we don't HAVE to do-- please lessen my caseload! Please don't make me work more! ) 

I say, Where's the work ethic in that statement??  Where's the motivation to work toward a higher good, to ensuring Va's students -  which includes students who are disabled - have access to a life like everyone else --  to be independent, and have access to the liberties and freedoms we all expect  -- and to become decent citizens, and not castoffs, shut-ins, or worse, incarcerated?   Access to education, good education and learning is critically important and KEY for ALL Virginians, and that it be given by people who care, are motivated to work and are qualified and educated themselves too.  Lowering Va's standards by eliminating details, truncating procedures, and by reducing or eliminating the involvement of the students' parents - would be a disservice to all Virginia's citizens.  If the (experts) parents aren't allowed to represent their children, the (nonexperts) school will??  Parents try to help, and try so hard to stay involved in their child's school programming, but so often the schools don't want to understand or hear.   

So many of the changes that are proposed to the current standards won't solve anything, but would lead to confusion and litigation.   Instead of spending time and money proposing to "fix" something (Va's regs) that ain't broke, the effort would be better spent educating Virginia's SD personnel, staffs, and providers on the current regs and procedures, and their responsibilities, and consistently so throughout the state.  I am speaking for myself and other SPED parents when I say that I am the expert on my child, my child's personality, habits and observed behaviors,  and I've found I'm also more expert as to my child's disability, and at least as competent and often much more so than the SD personnel and staff (on the IEP "team") as to knowledge of available treatments, methodologies and approaches to educating my child.   Parents have to constantly struggle and fight for what little say they have in advocating for their children's FAPE and developing a reasonable IEP as it is.  So often parents are made to feel as outsiders, and definitely NOT as if they're part of a working "team!"  Reducing parental involvement or diminishing parental consent and stating so in the regs would be ludicrous.   The proposed changes to the regs will not solve or resolve any problems.  These are but a distraction to the real changes that need to be made -- such as more active involvement in monitoring, enforcement and accountability by VDOE and the SDs with the regulations and procedures we currently have.  And providing for and making mandatory ongoing training of SD personnel involved in the supervision and education of SPED students; and let's stop pretending and be honest about  using that Lottery money to benefit our schools, teachers, and students and not funnel it somewhere else.