Monday, November 5, 2012

UPDATE: Seattle Schools Community Forum: OSPI Report on Special Ed in Seattle

Seattle Schools Community Forum: OSPI Report on Special Ed in Seattle:


Election Day

Need to get that ballot in?  Here's a link to the ballot drop-off points.   From King County Elections:

Return your ballot through the U.S. Postal Service using a first class stamp or at a ballot drop box or ballot drop-off van (temporary collection point). The deadline to return ballots is Election Day; ballots must be postmarked by Election Day or in a ballot drop box by 8:00 p.m. 

Interesting info from our friends at The Stranger Slog about election results:

 Enter numbers whiz Matt Barreto of the nonpartisan Washington Poll, who is promising to take tomorrow's 8:15 p.m. vote count announcement from King County (which will be King County's only vote count announcement of the night, and only a partial count at that); and then combine King County's results with the results from all the other counties (which should be closer to final counts, hopefully); and then run all those numbers through some fancy mathematical procedures; and then issue a projection in certain statewide races around 9 p.m. or so.


First Quarterly Program Placement Report

In compliance with newly adopted policy 2200, Equitable Access to Programs and Services, the superintendent has made the first quarterly report on program placement decisions.

A link to it is posted on this page: Program Placement. The report is deficient.

There is no new information in the report at all. It is merely a re-cap of decisions made previously, but it is an incomplete re-cap.

The report claims:
"Prior to approval of the new policy, the basis for changes implemented for 2012-13 (completed in February 2012) are attached. (See “Program Placement Decisions for 2012-13” on the enrollment website.) No changes to programs have been made since this information was posted."
This claim is false. The District has obviously made a decision regarding the relocation of The NOVA Project 


OSPI Report on Special Ed in Seattle


Each year the Washington State Office of the Superintendent of Public Instruction prepares a report on Special Education in every district. The report was released on November 1 and the Seattle Times wrote a vague sort ofeditorial about it, although they did not write a news story about it nor did they provide a link to the report.

Here are some facts about the report from the OSPI:

The OSPI web site, for those who are new to it, is a veritable labyrinth of links. None of it is intuitive. It's a freakin' miracle if you can ever find anything you're looking for.
Program Review 

The Special Education Program Review Team (formerly called “monitoring”) collaborates with school districts to ensure improved educational results and functional outcomes for all children with disabilities. Washington’s program review system includes a review of both quantitative data and qualitative information provided by districts to ensure that districts are implementing the requirements of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) 2004. 


Should You Sign Your Name Here?

We had an e-mail from a reader who stated that while he enjoyed the blog, he didn't read as often because people don't sign their names.

We've had some discussion around this before but I thought it worth revisiting.

Now for those who don't know it, we allow monikers because many of our readers are SPS employees who might otherwise face issues if they signed their names.  (Also, we allow NO purely anonymous names because it becomes difficult to follow with multiple anonymous posts and well, if you are unable to think up a blog name, you probably are not in the right place.)