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Special Education Services Division Complaint Resolved

Last March, a copy of an anonymous complaint alleging work environment concerns in the Special Education Services (SES) division of the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) landed in the Alabama School Connection’s post office box. ALSDE officials said they have...
Posted On Oct 14 2016
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State Department Violated Federal Disability Laws, Test Accommodation Policy Must Be Rewritten

The Alabama State Department of Education must rewrite the policy outlining who qualifies for testing accommodations after the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights (OCR) found the current policy violates rights of students with disabilities. That mandate...
Posted On Sep 26 2016
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Special Education Community Alliance Will Hold First Meeting Wednesday, August 3

Dustin Chandler knows how to bring people together around a common cause. As the driving force behind Carly’s Law, which legally authorized the University of Alabama at Birmingham to conduct a study of the effects of cannabinoid, or CBD, oil for children suffering seizure...
Posted On Jul 31 2016
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Alabama State Department of Education Confirms Review of Concerns in Special Education Services Division

The Alabama State Department of Education has confirmed it is conducting an inquiry into the state’s Special Education Services division due to concerns raised in an anonymous letter dated March 1 signed “Concerned Staff in Special Education Services”. In a statement to the...
Posted On Jun 16 2016
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Special Education Advisory Panel Meeting Scheduled for June 15

Advocates, educators and parents of children with special needs will gather in Montgomery on Wednesday, June 15, at 9:30 a.m. for their twice-yearly meeting. Interpreter services for the hearing impaired and Spanish speaking individuals will be available. According to the Alabama...
Posted On Jun 07 2016
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Special Education Due Process Changes Rise Again

Those special education due process changes have arisen again and are back on the table for Round Three, though the most controversial change has been scrapped. The Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) had proposed cutting the time period within which parents coul...
Posted On May 25 2016
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Dyslexia Advocacy Group Asks for Input

If you are the parent of a child with dyslexia, Decoding Dyslexia of Alabama and other support groups want to hear from you. They’ve created a survey that will be open until May 25. Click here to start the survey. The survey asks parents of children with dyslexia what their...
Posted On May 20 2016
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Special Education Conference for Families & Educators June 3

Three hot topics in special education will be discussed at the fifth annual Raising the Standards half-day conference, hosted by the Alabama Parent Training and Information (AL PTI) Center. The conference will be held in three locations simultaneously to allow for statewide...
Posted On May 17 2016
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Are We Pushing Children with Special Needs Out of Our Classrooms and Schools?

One of the foundations in educating children with disabilities is determining where a child spends the school day. For children with disabilities, the question is whether a child will learn, academically, behaviorally, and socially, better in an inclusive environment, i.e., in a...
Posted On Apr 28 2016
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Quick Reads – April 14, 2016

These are going to be really quick reads. Alabama’s statehouse reporters are doing a remarkable job keeping up with what Alabama’s lawmakers are doing. And there’s some other stuff going on, too. The State Board of Education will name an interim...
Posted On Apr 13 2016
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Quick Reads – April 12, 2016

Things are moving quickly in the state legislature. With only 10 days left, here’s what’s on tap for this week. Most of the action appears to be in the Senate this week. There are 35 Senators to represent the 4.85 million people in Alabama. That’s a lot of power...
Posted On Apr 12 2016
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Standardized Test Accommodations Yanked after Mid-Year Change in Testing Policy

This year’s round of standardized testing poses a different kind of challenge for Grace*, a fifth-grade student in Hoover City schools. The main support that had been provided to help her take those tests has been yanked after the Alabama State Department of Education...
Posted On Apr 07 2016
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Education Savings Accounts Bill Moving Forward

Education savings accounts (ESAs) bills are spreading like wildfire across the country, with ten states, including Alabama, currently considering adding ESAs to their school choice platter. ESAs allow parents to custom-design their child’s education, using state education...
Posted On Apr 03 2016
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Solutions Journalism Network Awards Grant for Special Education Coverage

The Solutions Journalism Network (SJN) has awarded the Alabama School Connection a grant to support a journalism project to examine schools that are showing measurable success educating students with disabilities through special education. The SJN grant will allow us the...
Posted On Mar 23 2016
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What Do Special Educators Need to Succeed?

The following article is republished from The Conversation, an independent source of news and views from the academic and research community. It was originally published on March 11, 2016. By Elizabeth Bettini, Boston University and Kristin Murphy, University of Massachusetts...
Posted On Mar 23 2016
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Education Savings Accounts: Parental Choice or Cost Savings for Public Schools?

Nearly 90,000 K-12 Alabama public school students will become eligible for Education Savings Accounts (ESAs) under HB84, which education reform groups say is about giving parents choice, but some House committee members said might help school districts save money on the high cost...
Posted On Feb 15 2016
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45 Education-Related Bills on the Radar

Week Three of the Regular Session has begun, and there are 45 education-related bills (and resolutions) on the radar. Check out the table here (also linked above in the main menu as “2016 Legislative Session“). No fewer than four separate bills have been filed to give...
Posted On Feb 14 2016
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Alabama’s High School Graduation Rates

Alabama’s meteoric increase in high school graduation rates, from 72% in 2011 to 89% in 2015, has some folks questioning those numbers. Governor Robert Bentley praised that increase in Alabama’s public school graduation rates in his State of the State speech Tuesday...
Posted On Feb 04 2016
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Updates and Deadlines for Participation: SEAP and ESSA

Two important updates and deadlines and participation about special education in Alabama: First, the Special Education Advisory Panel (SEAP) meeting is Wednesday, January 20 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m.  The meeting is being held in Montgomery, but you can participate via WebEx by...
Posted On Jan 19 2016
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After Months of Discussions, Alex Will Return to School

After many months of difficult discussions, a resolution has been reached to allow 14-year-old Alex to return to his Limestone County high school—a development which delights his mother, Rene Hoover. “Alex is happy at school,” she said. “I want him to be happy.” It’s...
Posted On Jan 18 2016
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How Come Other States’ Students with Disabilities Do So Much Better on the NAEP?

Having heard lots of excuses justifications reasons for why students with disabilities score poorly on the Alabama-mandated ACT Aspire, it’s time now to look at the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP) to see how Alabama’s students with disabilities...
Posted On Jan 10 2016
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Seriously? The State of Special Education in Alabama

With all of the energy being put into changing special education regulations to further restrict when and how parents can file complaints about their children’s special education in Alabama’s schools, one might think that the rest of special education is going along...
Posted On Jan 04 2016
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Why Change Due Process? Attorneys’ Fees

The cost of attorneys’ fees is one of a number of problems the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE) is trying to address by proposing changes to the way complaints related to special education enter and work through the system. A series of public hearings about the...
Posted On Dec 07 2015
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ACT Aspire Results by School. On a Map.

[This article was updated on September 29, 2016, to include Per Pupil Expenditures for FY15 on the map.] A couple of weeks ago, we shared two years of district-level ACT Aspire results. On a map. This time, we’re diving into two years of school-level results. On a map....
Posted On Nov 25 2015
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Alabama’s ACT Aspire Results. On a Map. Two Years’ Worth.

The Alabama State Department of Education released the results of the 2015 ACT Aspire results on Thursday. What follows are a series of maps. And tables. Read the directions. Click the buttons. To find your individual school’s results, click here. For the results that...
Posted On Nov 13 2015
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