Feds Releases Guidelines for Educating Students with Disabilities in the Event of a Swine Flu Outbreak

By Lisa J. Hudson

A school closure due to a swine flu outbreak is scenario that raises many "What if?" questions for state educational agencies (SEAs), local educational agencies (LEAs), schools and postsecondary institutions. A prolonged school closure due to exceptional circumstances is a "What if?" scenario that the IDEA, Section 504, and the ADA do not specifically address.

Recognizing this, the U.S. Department of Education released guidelines on Sept. 1 that generally outline the obligations of, and best practices for, SEAs, LEAs, and schools to their students with disabilities in the event of an H1N1 outbreak.

Generally speaking, if schools are closed and do not provide any educational services to the general student population, then they would not be required to provide services to special education students. Once school resumes, the schools need to determine whether a student with a disability needs compensatory education.

Additionally, Education Week notes that the guidelines says, if a student loses skills because of a prolonged absence from school, the IEP team must determine what compensatory services are needed, and these services can be delivered by providing extended school-year services, extending the school day, providing tutoring before and after school, or providing additional services during regular school hours—all scenarios where transportation may play a role in ensuring these services are provided.

Of interest to special needs transporters is the section of the guidelines that answers the following questions:

• Must an LEA continue to provide FAPE to students with disabilities during a school closure caused by an H1N1 outbreak?

• In the event of a school closure, how might educational services be provided to students with disabilities?

• What must a school do if it cannot provide services in accordance with a student’s IEP or Section 504 plan because of an H1N1 outbreak or if a student opts to stay home because the student is at high-risk for contracting the virus?

• In the event that a school is closed, would an IEP team be required to meet? Would an LEA be required to conduct an evaluation of a student with a disability?

• What steps must be taken to serve a student with a disability who may have lost skills as a result of a prolonged absence from school?

• If an LEA is required to provide services to parentally placed private school students with disabilities during an H1N1 outbreak, how will the LEA communicate with these private schools?

Special Needs Stimulus Perspectives and a Few Harsh Words

• Education Week writes about caution around the all the new funding that will go to schools for special needs. The sudden flood of funding may help a landscape that has been in a fiscal drought for years but provides no promise of sustained funding. One school's experience suggests how complex these decisions may be:

... Judith Johnson ... will be able to use stimulus money to preserve about five teaching positions in next year’s proposed budget. However, the stimulus measure didn’t prevent the district from sending layoff notifications last week to some 50 staff members, including teachers, clerical employees, and custodians. The employees who may end up being laid off at the end of this school year represent about 10 percent of the district’s staff.

• Similarly, Administrators Ponder Best Use for Special Education Stimulus Funds
• From New York an editorial on federal stimulus should be tapped to restore special needs education. The resident of Pearl River wants money to make up for cost-of-living-increases, day rehabilitation services for adults with special needs and out-of-home residential care.
• Harsh words from the parent of a special needs student on IEPs and transportation. To better understand how parents can feel about this, it's well worth checking out the whole stream of discussions.

To: Arne Duncan, From: Special Needs

Special needs advocates want U.S. Secretary of Education Arne Duncan to take a look at "rolling out long-awaited regulations for educating young children and cracking down on the use of restraints and seclusion as school disciplinary measures," Education Week reports [free subscription required and well worth it].

Rules for infants and toddlers with special needs, No Child Left Behind testing regulation, and "seclusion tactics" for disruptive students are all on the want list. One official, Nancy Reder, deputy executive director for governmental relations for National Association of State Directors of Special Education, thought well of early meetings with Duncan.

“The number-one thing, and Duncan has already done it, is [offer] access ... We really felt that there was no opportunity to be heard by the previous administration."

Special needs transportation does not appear on the wish list as mentioned in the article. But what, if any, issues should be before Duncan?