Like many organizations nationwide, AJE is taking the recommended precautions to help minimize the spread of the coronavirus (COVID-19) by adjusting our office operations.
Beginning Monday, March 16, 2020 – Tuesday, March 31, 2020:
*Our office will be closed for walk-in intake and visitors.
*Our intake sites at Mary’s Center and the DC Office of Administrative Hearings will be closed.
*Our scheduled trainings are canceled through April 4, 2020.
We will continue to be open for intake, information, resources and other business by phone Monday-Friday, 9 -5 pm and will provide updates as we receive new developments. Many events put on by our partners have also been canceled. We have updated our blog posts to reflect those cancellations, but as the situation is rapidly changing, we encourage families to confirm the status of ALL events if you plan to attend!
Here is the link to the federal government’s guidance to State and Local Education Agencies about IDEA during these COVAD-19 closures. The guidance is in Question and Answer format, and we will post some of the Questions and Answers on our blog for families while schools are closed, but the entire document is also available here. Remember as you read this guidance from the US Department of Education, that in DC, OSSE is our State Educational Agency (SEA), and we have over 50 LEAs, Local Educational Agencies, including for example, DCPS, KIPP DC, Friendship and many other smaller charter LEAs.
See the Question and Answer below, from the Office of Special Education Programs’ (OSEP) guidance to State and Local Educational Agencies about COVID-19, which is available here.
It is important for families to know that COPAA, the largest group of attorneys, advocates and other advocates working to protect the legal and civil rights of students with disabilities does not agree that OSEP’s reading of the law is correct about the obligations of LEAs provide FAPE when schools are closed. COPAA’s statement is here.
Question A-1: Is an LEA required to continue to provide a free appropriate public
education (FAPE) to students with disabilities during a school closure
caused by a COVID-19 outbreak?
Answer: The IDEA, Section 504, and Title II of the ADA do not specifically
address a situation in which elementary and secondary schools are
closed for an extended period of time (generally more than 10
consecutive days) because of exceptional circumstances, such as an
outbreak of a particular disease.
If an LEA closes its schools to slow or stop the spread of COVID-19, and
does not provide any educational services to the general student
population, then an LEA would not be required to provide services to
students with disabilities during that same period of time. Once school
resumes, the LEA must make every effort to provide special education
and related services to the child in accordance with the child’s
individualized education program (IEP) or, for students entitled to FAPE
under Section 504, consistent with a plan developed to meet the
requirements of Section 504. The Department understands there may be
exceptional circumstances that could affect how a particular service is
provided. In addition, an IEP Team and, as appropriate to an individual
student with a disability, the personnel responsible for ensuring FAPE to a
student for the purposes of Section 504, would be required to make an
individualized determination as to whether compensatory services are
needed under applicable standards and requirements.
If an LEA continues to provide educational opportunities to the general
student population during a school closure, the school must ensure
that students with disabilities also have equal access to the same
opportunities, including the provision of FAPE. (34 CFR §§ 104.4,
104.33 (Section 504) and 28 CFR § 35.130 (Title II of the ADA)). SEAs,
LEAs, and schools must ensure that, to the greatest extent possible,
each student with a disability can be provided the special education
and related services identified in the student’s IEP developed under
IDEA, or a plan developed under Section 504. (34 CFR §§ 300.101
and 300.201 (IDEA), and 34 CFR § 104.33 (Section 504)).
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