I am Janis White, President of the Seattle Special Education PTSA. Special education recovery services — once again, parents are getting confusing and inconsistent messages from schools, there has not been a full partnership with community and we are concerned that students with IEPs will not receive services they are entitled to.
According to OSPI, recovery services are services additional to those in a student’s IEP to address the ongoing impact of the pandemic. Every IEP team must consider the individual need for recovery services for every student with an IEP from preschool to age 21. Parents are supposed to be key partners in determining the need for recovery services.
The PTSA wrote to you on April 26 about the need for community input in development of the recovery plan that was submitted to OSPI on June 1 and we gave specific suggestions about funding needed for special education recovery services, including summer services.
The School Board has been informed by staff in public meetings that the Special Education Department has a comprehensive recovery plan. Families have not seen the plan and did not have any opportunity for meaningful input in developing that plan.
In the last week, families have received emails from their schools telling them that the school team — not the IEP team — has already decided their student does not need recovery services. They were given the opportunity to email back if they disagree, with the email due right after a three day weekend. Other families have received emails saying that they need to wait until the fall to discuss recovery services — making it impossible for students to access recovery services over the summer, which might help students prepare for the fall. These emails are not consistent with the OSPI guidance.
Is this really what it looks like to prioritize students with IEPs? Where is the accountability to ensure that recovery services are being implemented properly by schools? Our students do not need empty promises; they need the services and instruction they are legally entitled to.
