Blog
Disability History Month
Understanding Disability history is important -- important enough that more than 10 years ago, state lawmakers passed a law to guarantee during the month of October each public school would: "Conduct or promote educational activities that provide instruction,...
School Board Testimony 9/22/21
At the last meeting of the Student Services, Curriculum & Instruction Committee, staff gave a presentation about how students will be identified for Advanced Learning and Hi-Cap services. The Department will not hold any in person or remote testing this year, but...
School Board Testimony 9/9/21
You have already approved revised Policy 3246 and congratulated yourselves and District staff for all the hard work and for producing a policy that makes some of the changes needed to protect students. The first thing you should have done is apologize to the children...
School Board Testimony 8/25/21
The Special Education PTSA has sent you written comments on the BAR, Policy 3246 and the Procedure. I want to talk about community engagement. The last draft of the policy shared with community was flashed on the screen on a Zoom call last spring. People had to read...
Open Letter: Reinstate the Grade 6-12 Virtual Program
Dear School Board Directors, Superintendent Jones and Senior Staff: At the August 11 School Board meeting, District staff assured the School Board that they would assist families who had registered for the Virtual Program, Grades 6-12, to find and enroll in other...
Open Letter: Policy 3246 and accompanying Procedure
Dear School Board Directors, Superintendent Jones and Senior Staff, Thank you for this opportunity to provide comments from the Special Education PTSA about Policy 3246 and the accompanying Procedure, which will be introduced at the August 25 School Board meeting. As...
Summer Programming
The Seattle Special Education PTSA calls for an investigation of summer programming for students with disabilities in Seattle Public Schools. The issues faced by students and families during Summer 2021 were unacceptable and yet, many families would say that they were...
School Board Testimony 7/7/21
One year ago, the Special Education PTSA wrote to you and to the District about the fact that students with disabilities were not assigned to the proper tiers and were not being served in the summer of learning program. The Special Education Department reassigned a...
Open Letter: Recovery Services
Dear School Board Directors, Superintendent Jones and Senior Staff, As you know, students with IEPs who have not made appropriate progress on pre-COVID IEP goals are entitled to recovery services. These are services additional to what is provided in a student’s IEP to...
School Board Testimony 6/2/21
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...
