MO State School Board “tabled” MODESE Special Ed Proposals

MO State School Board “tabled” MODESE’s special ed recommendations on Oct 16.
According the to MODESE website, the Oct. 16 agenda item for MODESE’s special ed section recommendations on the public comments, was tabled.
Interestingly, faxes were sent the previous day to school board members expressing  how the pubic comments compiled by MODESE special ed section did not accurately reflect the actual comments made by the public.
The public made many comments on topics that were not solicited by MODESE; on some of them MODESE accepted the comment and made recommendation!  In essence, this means the public is ahead of DESE on what needs to be corrected/changed!

Now is the time for the public to let the MO State School Board realized the deficiences and changes that need to be made in MO special ed processes!   Their fax is 573 751 8613

Their next meeting is Nov 26 & 27 in ST Louis!

Sign the new petition:

http://www.change.org/petitions/missouri-state-school-board-examine-the-actual-public-comments-submitted-to-modese-special-education

 

Advertisement

MO State School Board Meeting Oct. 16, 2012 special ed matters

Missouri’s Special Education Section of DESE compiled the comments the public submitted earlier this fall.  Tuesday the state school board will look at this compilation.  Interestingly the compilation provided little specific information about the comments submitted by the public.

View the agenda for the school board meeting that the SPED Section of DESE is providing to the state school board members:

Click to access PartBStatePlan.pdf

As you will see, DESE Sped Section is recommending to the state school board to:

1. not change how the state Special Education Advisory Panel (SEAP) is set up.  DESE did not recommend members to be appointed by the Governor’s Council on Disability.   DESE doesn’t want a majority to be present in order for a quorom (enough people present to conduct business) (Sec 6, pg 99).
2. not change class size loads as recommended by public comments (Sec 7)
3. DESE did not recommend for schools to  contract with “unapproved” private agencies (sec 8)
4. Although DESE agrees to have a parent sign consent before records can be sent to the state school system for eligibility consideration, DESE recommends to have student records sent to the state school for eligibility consideration with the student’s name blacked out regardless if the parent signed consent. Sec 10, pg 145
5. Dese didn’t specifically include the comment about the need  to collect data on dropouts of our kids DUE TO THE FAILURE of the school to offer appropriate placement; thus DESE is recommending its not needed since DESE already collects dropout data.  Sec 10, pg 145
6. DESE recommends to not change records access to five days; it wants to keep the “FERPA” way…which is 45 days.  Parents in the state of California can access student records in five days. (Sec 2, pg 14)
7. DESE recommended to continue allowing IEP teams to “consider” positive behaviorial interventions, rather than “implement” positive behavorial interventions. (Sec 4, pg 45).
8. DESE recommends to disregard IDEA which  allows people with “special knowledge about the problems of children with disabilities: ( advocates) to assist parents in a hearing when the advocate might testify as a witness;  DESE wants the AHC to decide on a  “case by case” basis.  (Sec 5, pg 75)
9. DESE wants to continue to allow hearings to be “consolidated”; so when a student requests a hearing months after a previous hearing request, both actions would be combined thus limiting a parent’s ability to effect recourse in a timely manner (Sec 5, pg 75)
10. DESE recommended to continue to allow our kids with disabilities to be suspended for ten days without schools providing services.  Comments were submitted that recommended five. (Sec 5 pg 81)
11. DESE indicated no need for  the child complaint investigation processes/investigators duties to change, nor does DESE recommend investigators to have formal investigator training, as submitted in public comments. The public comments included removing investigators out from the special ed compliance section, so as to have a supervisor who would be outside the content area.  (Sec 6, pg 95)

Our state school board members need to realize they are presented with a filtered view of the reality of the public comments submitted.

http://dese.mo.gov/stateboard/stateboard.html#members

faxes to the board can be sent to:  573 751 8613

link to the post above:  http://wp.me/pl5tP-2B