GCDE News

Information Sharing: Special Education Guidance for Reopening Washington Schools 2020

Greetings, partners in education,

A Special Education Reopening Workgroup convened throughout June 2020 to develop special education guidance for reopening Washington schools for the 2020-21 school year. It is not the intent of the special education workgroup to duplicate the content of the Reopening Washington Schools 2020 District Planning Guide, which involved special education participation. Our goal is for this document to be a companion resource to the agency-wide reopening resource, to provide guidance, best practices, resources and unique considerations for supporting students with disabilities, their families, and educators through the school reopening process. Additional guidance and requirements can be found in the OSPI Special Education Questions and Answers: Provision of Services to Students with Disabilities During COVID-19 in Summer and Fall 2020, which was developed to provide discrete technical assistance for school districts on the topic of provision of special education services.

We greatly appreciate the work of the stakeholder group in providing questions and considerations to support development of this initial draft. Meeting notes from the Special Education Reopening Workgroup are posted on the Reopening Washington Schools 2020-21 Workgroup page.

We are releasing this initial draft of Special Education Guidance for Reopening Washington Schools 2020 to partners across the educational community. Stakeholders are invited to review this draft document and provide feedback regarding usability, best practices, questions, and constructive feedback to improve the content.

Please add comments directly onto the draft, or separately in writing, and submit to speced@k12.wa.us by Monday, July 6, 2020, at 12 pm. 

Someone from our team can also arrange a time to speak with you directly via phone or zoom, if you prefer, including language access and closed captioning supports.

Thank you in advance for your helpful feedback to help improve this draft guidance. As always, we thank you for your continued partnership.

With thanks,

Glenna Gallo

Assistant Superintendent, Special Education

Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction

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