Schools are responsible for ensuring students, families, and educators know how assistive technology (AT) works. In fact, students’ IEP teams must consider how it will be integrated with other therapies and interventions. If teams determine that a student needs assistive technology services, those supports must be stated in their IEP…
HB 2618 required the Oregon Department of Education to conduct a study to identify the best methodology for determining the appropriate number of students on a workload for Occupational Therapists, Physical Therapists, and Speech Language Pathologists. It also directed the department to submit findings of the study to the interim committees…
According to an article from K12 Dive, national trends in special education dispute resolution for the 2021-22 school year show a return to pre-pandemic activity as per data reported by the Center for Appropriate Dispute Resolution in Special Education (CADRE), which is a federal technical assistance center that supports state…
The federal process for approving state waiver requests to exceed a 1% cap on the number of students with significant cognitive disabilities who take alternate assessments is "generally appropriate" according to an Office of Inspector General (OIG) report. The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Elementary and Secondary Education (OESE), however, has room…
States and school districts are taking steps to ensure that “informal removals,” in which school days are shortened to address behavior issues for students with disabilities, do not violate civil and educational rights. In 2022, the U.S. Education Department (USDE) released guidance regarding "shortened days" that avers they are subject…
It has been four decades since there has been a major update to the regulations for Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. Last year, the U.S. Department of Education announced that it looking at the rules and a proposed rule revision was originally scheduled to be published in…
According to an updated policy statement released by the U.S. Departments of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Education (USDE) released on November 28, 2023, 55% of preschoolers with disabilities get special education services in classrooms separate from their peers. It goes on to say that young children with disabilities should…
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, with only 21 states reporting, over 2 million children were disenrolled from Medicaid in those 21 states as of November 14th. Overall, and as predicted by researchers, about 70% of those disenrollments occurred because of procedural reasons (e.g., states having outdated contact information for…
In a Wednesday, November 15, 2023 press conference, U.S. Education Secretary Miguel Cardona expressed strong concerns regarding analyses of the national data collection from the 2020-21 school year through the U.S. Education Department’s (USDE) Office for Civil Rights (OCR) Data Collection. The data from the mandatory survey of preK-12 public…
As interest in disability-inclusive curricula grows, in April 2023 the Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) announced the creation of a Disability Inclusive Curriculum Pilot Program to instruct K-12 students on the political, economic, and social contributions of individuals with disabilities. Under the program, schools can apply for up to $30,000…
