Title
Authorizing the Committees on Disabled and Persons with Special Needs and Education to hold hearings to examine current and best practices on Secondary Transition Services for Philadelphia public school students.
Body
WHEREAS, With 19,487 students enrolled in special education, the School District of Philadelphia has almost five times more students ages 6-21 enrolled than the next largest school district in the Commonwealth; and
WHEREAS, Students with disabilities are legally entitled to a Free Appropriate Public Education under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA); and the Individualized Education Program (IEP) is the main tool school districts use to comply with the Act; and
WHEREAS, A component of the IEP, required for students in Pennsylvania ages 14 and older, is transition services. Transition services are a coordinated set of activities designed to prepare students with disabilities to move from school to post-school life including further education and employment; and
WHEREAS, Transition services are critical because they enable each student to achieve the maximum possible independence in working, living, and participating in the community as adults; and
WHEREAS, There exists serious concerns that neither the Commonwealth, nor the School District in particular, are meeting their legal obligation to provide transition services to students; and
WHEREAS, The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) reports, in the School District for the 2015-2016 school year, which is the most recent year the District was monitored for transition services, 42 percent of the IEPs reviewed were not in compliance with the federal requirements for transition services; and
WHEREAS, The document entitled, LEA Performance on State Performance Plan (SPP) Targets, shows that for the 2016-2017 school year, only 38 percent of students in the School District who had IEPs when they left high school, were enrolled in higher education w...
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