DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION
P.O.
SUPTS. MEMO NO. 103
May 12, 2006
TO: Division Superintendents
FROM: Patricia I. Wright
Acting Superintendent of Public Instruction
SUBJECT:
The purpose of this
memo is to provide information on steps the Virginia Department of Education
(VDOE) is taking to implement the requirements of the Individuals with
Disabilities Education Improvement Act of 2004 (IDEA 2004), Public Law 108-446,
with regard to the development of and submission of a State Performance Plan
(SPP).
Section 616 (b) of
the reauthorized IDEA, requires states to develop and submit a State
Performance Plan (SPP) to the U.S. Department of Education (USED). States are required to focus primarily on
specific activities for:
- improving educational
results and functional outcomes for all children with disabilities; and
- ensuring that States
meet the program requirements with a particular emphasis on those requirements
that are most closely related to improving educational results for children
with disabilities.
In addition, this section of the IDEA requires States to monitor
local educational agencies (LEAs) using quantifiable indicators to adequately
measure performance in each of the following three priority areas:
- provision
of a free appropriate public education in the least restrictive
environment;
- state
exercise of general supervisory authority, including child find, effective
monitoring, the use of resolution sessions, mediation, and a system of
transition services; and
- disproportionate
representation of racial and ethnic groups in special education and related
services, to the extent the representation is the result of inappropriate
identification.
Several of the indicators will require the department to collect
new data from school divisions, including information resulting from parent and
student surveys. School divisions will be
informed once the department has specifics from the USED on which data will
need to be collected and how to report these data.
In order to meet these new requirements under the IDEA 2004, a
subcommittee of a stakeholder group is working with the departments monitoring
specialists to redesign the states monitoring system to focus primarily on the
requirements of the SPP. It should be
noted that VDOE is still required to monitor school divisions for compliance
with all regulatory and procedural requirements under the IDEA.
Finally, as required in the reauthorized IDEA, starting in 2007,
states must report annually to the public on the performance of each school
division on the targets in the SPP.
Again, school divisions will be informed once the department has
specifics on which data will be reported to the public and how the data will be
reported.
VDOE staff members have provided school
division special education staff information about the State Performance Plan
requirements and will continue to do so through meetings and electronic
communications as more information becomes available from the U.S. Department
of Education.
The revised plan is available for review at
the Office of Special Education and Student Services page on the Department of
Educations website (www.doe.virginia.gov/VDOE/).
Questions related to
PIW/SER/PR
Copy: local Directors of
Special Education