From West Virginia Attorney General JB McCuskey:
I want to thank the West Virginia Department of Education for the prompt response and their commitment to students with special needs and their parents.
The Department’s response confirms what we’ve been saying from the beginning: policies like those adopted by Kanawha County Schools are not the appropriate way to handle returning Hope Scholarship students needing special education services.
In our letter, we asked schools to recognize that returning students are different from students seeking an initial evaluation for services. We also asked that schools undertake certain steps to ensure that students with disabilities receive the services they need if they return to public schools.
In its response, the WVDE adopts as the “appropriate framework” the same steps that we proposed for those students in our letter—and agrees that this process must be “meaningfully different from treating re-enrollment as an entirely new initial referral.”
Contrary to what the letter from KCS suggested, re-enrolling students will now be given more support, including disciplinary protections. Most importantly, students should enjoy interim services upon re-enrollment, so they are supported from day one rather than waiting.
Most importantly, the WVDE reinforces that all students in West Virginia will now receive critical protections and services—returning Hope Scholarship students included—rather than being sent to the back of the line as if they were strangers to the system.
We’re also pleased that the Department is issuing statewide guidance that will reaffirm the key principles. And we’re happy to see that Kanawha County Schools’ letter—which the WVDE agreed was “legally imprecise and inconsistent with [federal regulations]”—will also be corrected.
We hope to continue to work with the WVDE and other partners to ensure that West Virginia’s children receive the education they deserve.
Read the response from the West Virginia Department of Education here.
Read the Attorney General's letter to the West Virginia Department of Education here.
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