by Common Ground | May 14, 2015 | Capitols
Federal education officials are fielding an increasing number of complaints related to disability discrimination in the nation’s schools. More than 3,900 complaints based on disability were filed with the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights during...
by Common Ground | May 14, 2015 | Capitols
NJ Senator Diane Allen (R-7) introduced a bill (S-1760) that would recognize American Sign Language as a world language and require high schools to let students fulfill their foreign language graduation requirement by taking sign language courses, instead of spoken...
by Common Ground | May 14, 2015 | Capitols
Assembly Bill A3224, requiring additional professional development requirements on suicide prevention, awareness, and response for public district personnel, has unanimously cleared the Assembly Education Committee, and at press time was awaiting an Assembly vote. The...
by Common Ground | Sep 25, 2014 | Capitols
A new set of reports shows that school discipline disproportionately affects students with disabilities and students of color. The findings, issued last spring by the Discipline Disparities Research-to-Practice Collaborative, found that students with disabilities are...
by Common Ground | Sep 25, 2014 | Capitols
The United States Department of Education (USDOE) has announced that it will begin to look at graduation rates, test scores, and other measures of academic performance to help determine whether states are meeting the needs of students with disabilities. The focus on...
by Common Ground | Sep 25, 2014 | Capitols
The U.S. Department of Education has issued guidance to charter schools underscoring their responsibility to provide special education services. In a seven-page “Dear Colleague” letter, the U.S. Department of Education said that charter schools have the same...
by Common Ground | Aug 11, 2014 | Capitols
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, (CMS) officials released federal guidance for states on Medicaid coverage of therapies for autism, indicating that such treatments are covered for beneficiaries under age 21. While the guidance focuses on the provision of...
by Common Ground | Aug 11, 2014 | Capitols
The National Center for Education Statistics, which administers the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP), released a research report earlier this year that endorses read-aloud accommodations for students with disabilities for examinations. The Center...
by Common Ground | Aug 11, 2014 | Capitols
Nearly a year after the NJDOE backed away from sweeping changes to state special education code, the Department has put forth a modest proposal to make technical changes to the code. The changes, which were submitted to the State Board of Education, are mostly...
by Common Ground | Aug 11, 2014 | Capitols
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has signed into law a bipartisan measure (S-2079) designed to ensure that students with disabilities are able to participate in athletics, and are provided with reasonable accommodations or modifications, based on their individual...
by Common Ground | Apr 22, 2014 | Capitols
Leaders at the U.S. Department of Education (DOE) have clarified the responsibilities of local school districts to provide services to “highly mobile” students, such as those in foster care or homeless, children of migrant workers, and children in military families....
by Common Ground | Apr 22, 2014 | Capitols
New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has signed a new law that would allow a child who has moved out of a school district as the consequence of a family crisis to remain enrolled in his or her current school until the end of the school year. The measure allows any child...
.