Meeting of the Board of Regents | October 2008

Report of

REGENTS VESID COMMITTEE

to

The Board of Regents

October 20, 2008

Your VESID Committee held its scheduled meeting on October 20, 2008.   All

members were present with the exception of Regent Gardner, who was excused.   Regent Young also attended.                                      

MATTERS NOT REQUIRING BOARD ACTION

              Deputy Commissioner Cort updated the Committee on a recent OSEP visit.

              Deputy Commissioner Cort discussed the Regents legislative priorities for VESID as well as the Regents 2009-10 budget proposals for VESID.

              Staff had a preliminary discussion with the Committee about regulations proposed to be developed that relate to program standards for education programs for school age students and preschool students with disabilities being educated in private schools.  The Committee endorsed staff moving ahead in developing these regulations.  (VESID (D) 1)

              Staff provided information on the new Unified Contract Services (UCS), a component of the overall Designing Our Future initiative that relates to the method by which VESID purchases disability-related services for persons with disabilities. (VESID (D) 2)

MATTERS REQUIRING BOARD ACTION

The Committee voted to approve a proposed amendment to the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education relating to the use of the State’s Forms for individualized education programs, meeting notice and prior written notice, as an emergency action upon a finding by the Board of Regents that such action is necessary for the preservation of the general welfare in order to immediately extend, from January 1, 2009 to September 1, 2009, the initial effective date for required use of State forms for IEPs, meeting notice and prior written notice (notice of recommendation) and thereby provide sufficient time for the Department to field check proposed forms and provide professional development on the new forms, and to require use of the new forms at the beginning of the 2009-10 school year and thereby avoid any risk of potential disruptions to a districts policies, procedures and practices that might result if this requirement were to be made effective in the middle of the 2008-09 school year.   (Regent Rosa was absent for the vote.) (VESID (A) 1)

The Committee voted to approve a proposed addition to the Regulations of the Commissioner of Education which prescribes a dispute resolution mechanism regarding claims for reimbursement of costs for special education provided to a nonresident student with a disability who is parentally placed in a nonpublic school located in a school district other than the school district in which the student legally resides.  (Regent Rosa was absent for the vote.)  (VESID (A) 2)

              That concludes our report.