I question the ‘lack of authority of the DOE to approve plans’ written by local educational agencies. 

As president of the Virginia Association for the Gifted, I requested under the Virginia Freedom of Information Act (§2.2-3700, et seq) copies of the following records: Position(s) issued by the Attorney General on the following current regulation: Regulations Governing Educational Services for Gifted Students [8 VAC 20 ? 40] based on the VACEG minutes dated May 29, 2008[1] which state:  "Donna Poland updated the status of the Regulations revision process. Members were informed of the Attorney General’s interpretations of the old regulations. These interpretations led to several of the changes currently in the proposed Regulations." Specifically, “Dr. Poland reiterated that the Board has not been given authority under the Code to approve the plans, and does not have the authority to require localities to submit them to the state.”  The Attorney General was quoted during this meeting as the official legal source of this change/interpretation. 

The response that I received from the Senior Assistant Attorney General stated “My files do contain other records relating to the regulations, but they are beyond the scope of your request for “positions” on the regulation.”

Given the potential significant negative impact of losing centralized oversight, I think this issue warrants clarification.