FAIRFAX COUNTY SCHOOL BOARD TESTIMONY Vivian Kidd - Fairfax Alliance for Appropriate Public Education (FAAPE) May

23, 2013 Good Evening members of the Board. My name is Vivian Kidd. I am the parent of two FCPS students with disabilities and a member of the Fairfax Alliance for Appropriate Public Education (FAAPE). I am here tonight to speak about the SR&R, and specifically the proposed creation of a section on students with disabilities as recommended by the ad hoc discipline committee. This new section represents a positive change which I very much support. Unfortunately, not all the ad hoc committee's recommendations on students with disabilities are in the current draft. Important protections for students with disabilities are missing, like a requirement that principals consult members of a student's IEP team prior to making any decision to suspend and/or expel the child. The Board should enact this. As recommended by the ad hoc committee, the Board should also approve an exemption from acknowledging the SR&R for students with significant intellectual or developmental disabilities. Children with these disabilities cannot be expected to comprehend or generalize the requirements of the SR&R. Even if a student with a disability can understand the expectations of the SR&R, they may not be able to easily communicate that understanding. The Board should adopt the ad hoc committee's recommendation that all IEP accommodations be provided to any student who is asked to give a written statement about a discipline incident. I hope you will approve these and the other ad hoc committee recommendations for the section on students with disabilities. Clarifying procedures and protections, and focusing on prevention and intervention instead of punishment, are first steps to addressing the disproportionate discipline of students with disabilities, who primarily are African American and Hispanic. My own experience has shown me how easily children with challenging behaviors can be labeled with a disability and caught in a pattern of suspension. My 5 year old son was identified with an emotional disability within 6 weeks of entering kindergarten this past September. I resisted putting him in a more restrictive educational setting, and he was subjected to numerous suspensions. I advocated strongly for my son's IEP team to put into place more active interventions and he is now doing well. However, it shouldn't be so hard. Parents of students with disabilities need to be able to look to our schools to provide help when their children are in crisis, not just seek to change placement. Please adopt all of the ad hoc discipline committee's recommendations for the section on students with disabilities. Give our schools not just guidelines for dealing with the behaviors of these children, but change the fundamental way we approach students with disabilities in the discipline process.