Resource
Testimony: District of Columbia Public Schools Oversight (FY17)
Executive Director Judith Sandalow testified today before the DC Council’s Committee on Education regarding the FY2016 performance of the District of Columbia Public Schools (DCPS). Judith’s testimony focused, first, on students with disabilities, including:
- Discussing the need to fully implement the 2014 legal reforms of special education;
- Highlighting DCPS’s gaps in special education services for high schoolers with disabilities; and
- Discussing how children who need services in all different special education settings need DCPS to focus on improving their services, rather than narrowly focus on children getting more services in general education.
Secondly, her testimony focused on improvements needed in DCPS’s efforts to reduce truancy and absenteeism and on the disproportionate impact of suspensions and expulsions on children based on race and disability.
Lastly, Judith discussed the need for a comprehensive plan to make all DCPS schools trauma-sensitive and for adequate school-based mental health services.
Click below to read her full testimony.