Virtual K-12 Special Education: Policy and Practice Recommendations March 18, 2010 Paula Burdette, Ph.D. Director Project NASDSE Alexandria, Virginia

Background Virtual Focus Group – Challenges 2 ½ Day Face-to-Face Forum – Recommendation Invitees - ▫Parent ▫State Dept of Education ▫Higher Education ▫Technical Assistance Providers ▫Virtual Providers

Themes of Challenges Identified Personnel Quality and Preparation Accessibility for Students with Disabilities Accountability IEP Issues Roles and Responsibilities Financial Issues Attitudes and Expectations Regarding Virtual Special Education

Sample General Recommendations Waive state reciprocity requirements for virtual teachers and shortage areas Get primary stakeholders to design language for this that states can use; bring about awareness across these groups; develop incentives for reciprocity agreements (federal funding)

Sample General Recommendations (cont.) ▫Combine Council for Exceptional Citizens and Related Services standards with iNACOL standards ▫Distribute standards to be used for certification, professional development, hiring, and evaluation ▫Encourage teacher training programs to modify their programs ▫Use parents as partners in preservice training ▫Ensure teacher training on the technology needed to serve students with disabilities in virtual context

Sample General Recommendations (cont.) Federally fund a virtual special education funding center to identify costs Develop policy recommendations and guidance to be disseminated by iNACOL Develop a virtual school primer to bring about awareness of costs, special education requirements, parent roles, variety of service provision options, accessibility issues, etc.

Sample General Recommendations (cont.) Dept. of Education develop a clear directive to designing an ongoing process for best-in-class approval for curricular materials in virtual contexts Establish or utilize existing national technical assistance to support states/locals as they work with students with disabilities in virtual settings Develop/integrate accountability measures within existing systems

NEXT STEPS A proceedings document is in the process of being developed Will be available at Sign up to receive documents We’ll keep working with organizations like iNACOL and NASDSE to disseminate the information to members, legislators, and other policy makers