By Chloe Hawkins

There are still some spots remaining in a new academic program that aims to support Virginia public school students after the impact of COVID-19 on education, although a majority have been filled.

The Virginia Department of Education and Graduation Alliance launched “ENGAGE Virginia” last month. ENGAGE Virginia will help students with learning and attendance issues after the effects of the pandemic, according to a VDOE press release. It will “supplement efforts already underway in schools to meet the needs of students still struggling with academic, attendance and mental health issues,” stated Jillian Balow in a press release. Balow was the state superintendent of Public Instruction but recently resigned.

The program is state-funded and free to the public, according to ENGAGE Virginia’s website. Families who sign up will be assigned an academic success coach, according to its website. The coaches will help students in ways like to focus on their schoolwork, create resumes and refer students to local social-emotional support nonprofits.

The VDOE Office of School Quality is in charge of overseeing ENGAGE Virginia, according to Aurelia Ortiz, director of School Quality. This office “helps schools with school improvement,” Ortiz said.

The General Assembly designated $3.5 million for academic assistance to the VDOE during the 2022 session, according to Ortiz. After the pandemic, the VDOE had many concerns around student displacement, Ortiz said.

“After the pandemic we knew that divisions had concerns, which we were aware of, with student engagement, with chronic absenteeism, students that had fallen off the roster, students that they could not locate,” Ortiz said. “Students can’t be successful if they aren’t in school.”

Forty-two school divisions reached out to ENGAGE Virginia to sign students up, while 30 school divisions officially partnered with ENGAGE Virginia, according to Ortiz. Over 11,000 program spots have been filled out of the allotted 15,000, Ortiz said.

These spots are “tentatively taken” by the school divisions, which means each division’s needs vary depending on its size, Ortiz said. Parents can also reach out to their child’s school to ask for academic help.

“As long as there are seats available — which as of right now you can see by the numbers there are seats available — then they [families] would be eligible for the program as well,” Ortiz said.

ENGAGE Virginia offers a human resource in schools where those resources are lacking, whether that be through a social worker or school counselor, according to Ortiz.

“A social worker would make a referral for community services, the counselor would offer mental health support, a teacher would provide homework assistance,” Ortiz said. “ENGAGE Virginia will do all of those things wrapped into one to meet the needs of the families.”

The impact of the program should be multilayered, through mental and academic support and the link to community resources, she said.

COVID-19 created the largest disruption of education systems in history, according to a United Nations policy brief released in August 2020.

Parent Courtney Dean’s family had a hard time adjusting to the pandemic, according to Dean. Dean’s two children, 11th grader Carter and eighth grader Stella, are enrolled in Chesterfield County Public Schools, according to Dean.

The pandemic was “challenging” for Dean’s children, she said. It was tough for them academically, but they also missed out on a lot of “lasts,” Dean said. Her two children’s fifth and eighth grade school years were cut short by the pandemic, and they missed out on end-of-year events.

“She [Stella] was doing fine as far as learning in the virtual world at first,” Dean said. “But she had a really hard time focusing and paying attention to virtual because it’s so much more interesting to look around your bedroom and, you know, mess with things … many times I would find her asleep because she could.”

Stella also had issues with her Spanish class once she transferred back to in-person classes, Dean said.

 Stella advanced to the next level Spanish class, but is retaking it because she needed a better foundation, Dean said.

“She started that when she was virtual and then it went back to a hybrid thing where the teacher was trying to teach both the kids that were there in person, like my daughter, as well as the kids who were at home,” Dean said. “For my daughter, it just didn’t work … to no fault of the teacher; it was brand new for everybody and she was doing her best.”

Dean’s son, Carter, dealt with more of an “emotional struggle,” she said. He worked over 12 hours a day on homework, from 7 a.m. to midnight, once things went virtual, according to Dean.

“He got to the point where he was just so exhausted from it,” Dean said.

Dean was not aware of the ENGAGE Virginia relief program, but said it seems like it will be “so helpful” for students who had a hard time adjusting to virtual or hybrid learning environments.

“You can’t stop the flow of learning for everybody,” Dean said, but some students might need more help outside of the class.

Parents can start the registration process through ENGAGE Virginia, here.

By Nathaniel Cline

After failing to meet federal requirements to support students with disabilities in 2020, the Virginia Department of Education will remain under further review by the federal government after continuing to fall short in monitoring and responding to complaints against school districts, according to a letter from the U.S. Department of Education.

“We have significant new or continued areas of concerns with the State’s implementation of general supervision, dispute resolution, and confidentiality requirements” of IDEA, stated the Feb. 17 letter from the Office of Special Education Programs.

The U.S. Department of Education first flagged its concerns in a June 2020 “Differentiated Monitoring and Support Report” on how Virginia was complying with the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, following a 2019 visit by the Office of Special Education Programs.

IDEA, passed in 1975, requires all students with disabilities to receive a “free appropriate public education.”

The Virginia Department of Education disputed some of the federal government’s findings in a June 19, 2020 letter.

Samantha Hollins, assistant superintendent of special education and student services, wrote that verbal complaints “are addressed via technical assistance phone calls to school divisions” and staff members “regularly work to resolve parent concerns” by providing “guidance documentation” and acting as intermediaries between school employees and parents.

However, some parents and advocates say systemic problems in how the state supports families of children with disabilities persist. At the same time, a June 15, 2022 state report found one of Virginia’s most critical teacher shortage areas is in special education.

“Appropriate policies and procedures for both oversight and compliance, and their implementation, are crucial to ensuring that children with disabilities and their families are afforded their rights under IDEA and that a free appropriate public education (FAPE) is provided,” said the Feb. 17 letter from the Office of Special Education Programs.

While the U.S. Department of Education wrote that it believes the Virginia Department of Education has resolved some of the problems identified in 2020, including resolving complaints filed by parents and creating a mediation plan, it said it has identified “new and continued areas of concern” and intends to continue monitoring Virginia’s provision of services for students with disabilities.

Among those are ongoing concerns over the state’s complaint and due process systems that “go beyond the originally identified concerns” originally found. The Office of Special Education Programs writes it has concluded Virginia “does not have procedures and practices that are reasonably designed to ensure a timely resolution process” for due process complaints.

The department also said it has concerns over the practices of at least five school districts that are inconsistent with IDEA’s regulations.

The decision comes after the U.S. Department of Education announced in November that Fairfax County Public Schools, Virginia’s largest school district, failed to provide thousands of students with disabilities with the educational services they were entitled to during remote learning at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Virginia is also facing a federal class-action lawsuit over claims that its Department of Education and Fairfax County Public Schools violated the rights of disabled students under IDEA.

Parents involved in the case said the Virginia Department of Education and Fairfax school board “have actively cultivated an unfair and biased” hearing system to oversee challenges to local decisions about disabled students, according to the suit.

Charles Pyle, a spokesman for the Virginia Department of Education, said in an email that “VDOE continues to work with our federal partners to ensure Virginia’s compliance with all federal requirements, as we have since the ‘Differentiated Monitoring and Support Report’ was issued in June 2020.”

The federal government said if Virginia could not demonstrate full compliance with IDEA requirements, it could impose conditions on grant funds the state receives to support early intervention and special education services for children with disabilities and their families.

Last year, Virginia received almost $13.5 billion in various grants linked to IDEA, according to a July 1, 2022 letter to former Superintendent of Public Instruction Jillian Balow, who resigned on March 9.

James Fedderman, president of the Virginia Education Association, blasted Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s administration after the findings were released.

“While the Youngkin administration has been busy waging culture wars in schools, his administration has failed to meet basic compliance requirements with the U.S. Department of Education for students with disabilities,” Fedderman said. “This failure threatens our federal funding for students with disabilities and is a disservice to Virginia families who need critical special needs support.”

UR alums and longtime generous benefactors Carole and Marcus Weinstein will donate $25 million to the University of Richmond to support a center focused on student learning. This is the second-largest single gift in the University’s history. The Carole and Marcus Weinstein Learning Center will be located in Boatwright Memorial Library.

This gift will enable the University to create a collaborative, state-of-the-art center that co-locates, integrates, and expands services that support academic achievement for students, including effective speaking, writing, and peer tutoring. The new center will also include advanced quantitative support and other resources for students in every stage of their educational journey.

“We are excited by the way the University’s Boatwright Library will accommodate the next generation of students,” said Carole and Marcus Weinstein. “We remember spending hours poring over the library’s card catalog to do further research for papers we were writing. The new Learning Center will use the library’s centralized space to offer cutting-edge practices and support new skills students need now and into the future.”

Among numerous contributions to campus, the Weinstein family’s gifts have supported scholarships, faculty chairs, international education, well-being, and chaplaincy programs, as well as the creation of the Carole Weinstein International Center, the Weinstein Center for Recreation, and Weinstein Hall. Marcus Weinstein recently received the Paragon Medal, the University’s highest honor, in recognition of his decades of support for students and the University’s academic mission.

“We are deeply grateful to the Weinsteins for their steadfast support,” said University of Richmond President Kevin F. Hallock. “They continually lead by example in showing the transformative power of philanthropy at UR.”

“Our family and faith have encouraged us to make the world a better place,” the Weinsteins said. “We hope others will be inspired by our example to make a difference in whatever way they can. The happy surprise is that not only will they do good, but it will also make them feel good.”

“The commitment and dedication of generations of Spiders have helped to make UR what it is today,” said Martha E. Callaghan, vice president for Advancement. “This important milestone in our upward trajectory amplifies our academic excellence and helps ensure our students thrive in and outside of the classroom.”

The planning process for this new center is underway.