Tuesday, November 26, 2013

Bullying of Childrern With Disabilities: Addendum II Recent OSERS Guidance

Seal of the United States Department of Education
Seal of the United States Department of Education (Photo credit: Wikipedia)


















On its blog the U S Department of Education, Michael Yudin, the Acting Assistant Secretary of OSERS notes that the Department has issued guidance on Bullying of Kids With Disabilities. 

The Dear Colleague letter dated August 20, 2013 notes that bullying can constitute a denial of FAPE under IDEA, but in any event bullying of children with disabilities cannot be tolerated. The letter specifically notes that students with disabilities are disproportionately affected by bullying and specifies actions that should be taken when bullying is suspected.  The letter encourages states to reevaluate their policies on problem behaviors, including bullying in light of the letter and other guidance by OSEP and OCR.  You can  and should read the letter here.

An attachment to the Dear Colleague letter specifies a number of effective evidence based practices for preventing and addressing bullying.  You can read the seven page attachment here.
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4 comments:

  1. Hi, Jim,

    Any comment on how Positive Behavior Intervention Supports and the challenge of implementation for administrators and reasons why this can be difficult?

    Barbara

    ReplyDelete
  2. Barbara,

    There is some info on PBIS in the attachment to the OSERS letter cited above. Please tell us more about implementation difficulties.

    Thanks,

    JG

    ReplyDelete
  3. Please let the people stop bullying children with disabilities.

    ReplyDelete