The U.S. Department of Education issued a Supplemental Fact Sheet, reminding school districts to seek various ways to deliver services to students with disabilities, including online or virtual instruction. In response to states’ “serious misunderstanding” regarding the provision of a Free and Appropriate Public Education (“FAPE”) to students with disabilities during the coronavirus pandemic, OCR clarified that compliance with the IDEA, ADA and Section 504 laws, “should not prevent any school from offering educational programs through distance instruction.” Examples offered by the Office of Civil Rights (“OCR”) included, “…extension of time for assignments, videos with accurate captioning or embedded sign language interpreting, accessible reading materials, and many speech or language services through video conferencing.”
April 2020
