The U.S. Department of Education has issued guidance to all school district staff to ensure children with disabilities are provided the same learning opportunities as regular education students during the COVID-19 school closures. The Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) emphasized that accessibility to technology is an important component to provide students with disabilities educational opportunities, and advised for IEP teams to continue holding annual review meetings, initial evaluations and re-evaluations (if possible) via telephone or electronic means. If face-to-face evaluations are required, OCR is allowing continuations of the evaluations until after school facilities reopen.
April 2020
