OSERS issues Dear Colleague Letter - addressing behavioral supports for students with disabilities

OSERS issues Behavioral Supports DCL addressing the needs of students with disabilities

See below and attachment from the US Dept. of Education.

 U.S. Department of Education Releases Guidance to Schools on Ensuring Equity and Providing Behavioral Supports for Students with Disabilities

 

The U.S. Department of Education’s Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) today issued guidance in the form of a Dear Colleague Letter (DCL) that emphasizes the requirement that schools provide positive behavioral supports to students with disabilities who need them. It also clarifies that the repeated use of disciplinary actions may suggest that many children with disabilities may not be receiving appropriate behavioral interventions and supports. When schools fail to consider and provide for needed behavioral supports through the Individualized Education Program, it is likely to result in a child not receiving the free appropriate public education to which they are entitled under federal law.

The DCL on the Inclusion of Behavioral Supports in Individualized Education Programs is now available on the Department’s website: http://www2.ed.gov/policy/gen/guid/school-discipline/index.html.

 

Also available is a suite of accompanying resources, including a Summary for Stakeholders, which lays out the main points of the issued guidance in an easily-digestible format. For more information, please visit the Rethink Discipline website, or follow the press link here: http://www.ed.gov/news/press-releases/us-department-education-releases-guidance-schools-ensuring-equity-and-providing-behavioral-supports-students-disabilities.

 

 

Ruth E. Ryder

Acting Director

Office of Special Education Programs

U.S. Department of Education

Email: ruth.ryder@ed.gov

www.ed.gov/osers | Subscribe

 

 

• Memo-OSEP Guidance PBIS in IEPs 0816.pdf