Virginia Regulatory Town Hall View Comments

Department of Education

State Board of Education

Guidance Document Change: The VDOE Supplemental Guidance for Evaluation and Eligibility in Special Education was developed to assist Individualized Education Program (IEP) and Eligibility teams, including parents, as they engage in evaluation, eligibility determinations, and decisions regarding the need for related services. This guidance is an addendum to the Virginia Department of Education’s Guidance on Evaluation and Eligibility for Special Education and Related Services. This document was developed in response to Recommendations 1 and 2 from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) 2020 report on K-12 Special Education in Virginia. The Supplemental Guidance provides information about data sources that may be used to inform eligibility for special education services or a need for a related service, as well as information to assist in the local interpretation for terminology in Virginia special education regulations that are not clearly defined (e.g., determining “adverse educational impact” and determining “need for specially designed instruction”). The Sample Eligibility Forms and Disability Worksheets reflects a revision to the existing Guidance on Evaluation and Eligibility for Special Education Appendix (Sample Evaluation and Eligibility Forms). This revision was made in response to Recommendation 2 from the Joint Legislative Audit and Review Commission (JLARC) 2020 report on K-12 Special Education in Virginia. The sample forms and worksheets are provided to assist Local Educational Agencies (LEA) in documenting eligibility determinations in accordance with the criteria contained in the Regulations Governing Special Education Programs for Children with Disabilities in Virginia.

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9/1/21 6:07 pm

Commenter: Lara Sullivan

Eligibility language based on cultural background is sad, racist, and wrong

Your language is dangerous—if a student doesn’t perform well, they should receive help, not a mob of penny pinching administrators supposing the reasons why a student didn’t perform well on tests.
My daughter’s reading difficulties were originally explained away as inadequate instruction—she’s dyslexic and the IEP team was all to happy to ignore that fact and make us wait another year. You waste too much time on this nonsense! Just help kids and cut out these stupid IEP team meeting debates (as you propose below).

This language should be deleted immediately. Really, it’s shameful.

"Careful consideration of bias and diagnostic accuracy or error rates is suggested when examining performance on norm referenced or standardized tests. Research shows that cultural and linguistic differences may result in an impact of up to 35 standard score points depending on the particular test and individual student’s cultural background and language skills. 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.

When results across student evaluation components are inconsistent or varied, the team should consider possible reasons or a combination of other explanations for the student’s academic and/or behavioral difficulties. Discussion of why results differ may reveal additional explanations including lack of high-quality instruction due to ongoing teacher vacancies, implementation of interventions not matched to student area(s) of need, or cultural mismatch for classroom activities or evaluation tasks."

Sincerely,

Lara Sullivan

4857 35th Rd N

Arlington, VA 22207

CommentID: 99891