by Common Ground | Apr 20, 2021 | Courts, Features, Professionals, Teachers
The COVID-19 pandemic and its disruption of education has had schools, parents, and advocates wondering about accountability for services for students with disabilities that were lost under school closures, and due to remote and virtual instruction. Dr. Perry Zirkel,...
by Common Ground | Apr 20, 2021 | Courts
In October 2020, the United States District Court in New Mexico issued an important ruling related to COVID and IDEA in Hernandez v. Grisham, a case originally filed as a class action. Plaintiffs challenged the state’s COVID-19 reentry policy for the public...
by Common Ground | Apr 20, 2021 | Courts
Last fall, the role of non-attorney advocates in special education advocacy came under fire when the New Jersey Supreme Court issued “Opinion 56.” The 10-page opinion would have made it more difficult for advocates who are not lawyers to help parents of special...
by Common Ground | Apr 20, 2021 | Capitols
Congressional Democrats in Washington D.C. have introduced the Keeping All Students Safe Act. If passed, the measure would enact a national ban on all restraint procedures that can restrict breathing, including prone restraint (where students are held face down on the...
by Common Ground | Apr 20, 2021 | Capitols
A bill moving through the New Jersey legislature would require boards of education to provide special education, transition services, and related services to certain students exceeding the age of eligibility for special education and related services. The bill would...
by Common Ground | Apr 20, 2021 | Capitols
The proposed FY2022 New Jersey State budget includes $578 million in additional K-12 school aid and nearly $50 million in additional preschool funding. School districts will be able to use state funds, in conjunction with federal resources, to address COVID-19-related...
by Common Ground | Apr 20, 2021 | Capitols
While only 43% of NJ students are white, 67% of our state’s public school teachers are white. A package of nine bills has been introduced in the New Jersey Senate to address the lack of teacher diversity in the Garden State. In addition, the Governor’s 2022 budget...
by Common Ground | Feb 2, 2021 | Features, Parents, Professionals, Students, Teachers
For students, teachers, families, the impact of the pandemic on education has been all too clear. For our education system as a whole and policy makers, the long-term effects of the largest educational disruption in history are today not as easy to assess. What can we...
by Common Ground | Feb 2, 2021 | Parents, Professionals, Students, Teachers
At the beginning of the COVID-19 public health response and the displacement of students to full remote learning and hybrid combinations of on-site and remote learning, attendance reporting for teachers and schools was challenging and riddled with disparate and...
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