DCPS still digging through special ed backlog
Mayor Adrian M. Fenty and former schools chancellor Michelle A. Rhee can justifiably claim progress in cleaning up some of the school system's historically deficient delivery of special education services. In the summer of 2007, 979 court-ordered hearing officer determinations--formal orders to the school system to place students in special ed programs--languished unimplemented in bureaucratic limbo for as long as four years. That backlog has been rolled back substantially.
But a recent memo to principals from chief academic officer Carey M. Wright indicates that serious problems remain at the other end of the pipeline, before students are declared eligible for special education. When students are first identified by parents or school staff as having possible disabilities, they attempt to address the issues in a regular general education setting. If that doesn't work, children are supposed to receive a formal evaluation, with tests, observations and interviews.
But in August OSSE (Office of the State Superintendent of Education)