The Pennsylvania Department of Education has made a policy change this school year that impacts special education students.
Up until this year, special education students could remain in school until they were 21 years old, but with this recent change in policy now they students can stay in school until the age of 22.
The Pennsylvania Department of Education sent a letter out on August 30th to school districts across the commonwealth — stating in part, “The Pennsylvania Department of Education (PDE) is writing to communicate an important policy change that will provide continued education services to special education students.”
“It’s a great idea and we embrace it whole heartedly,” said Dr. Amy Arcurio, the Superintendent of the Greater Johnstown school district.
Dr. Arcurio tells 6 News she supports this policy change.
“We are always eager to serve students who have special needs as long as we can," Dr. Arcurio added.
This policy change follows FAPE — the right that ensures all students are entitled to a Free Appropriate Public Education.
“Those students need more time to develop the skills that are necessary to launch them into adult life,” said Dr. Arcurio.
Previously, special education students could no longer attend school past 21 years old, but now according to the letter from the PDE that’s no longer the case.
“The Pennsylvania Department of Education has created an opportunity for students to remain in educational settings until their 22nd birthday,” Dr. Arcurio added.
And although Dr. Arcurio supports this new policy change she says, “This mandate is an unfunded mandate. So, often times these are great ideas and they read very well on paper, but the question becomes you know how are districts able to fund this initiative.”
Currently, Dr. Arcurio says she is working with the special education department in her school district on how they would fund this initiative and that’s starts by seeing just how many students would be interesting in pursuing further education.
“Some of our students will not," said Dr. Arcurio. "They’re already launched into employment opportunities, they’ve transitioned into the adult world, but some will you know some students will take advantage of this and if they haven’t been able to have a successful opportunity in the community for employment transitional skills we would hope they would take advantage of it, but there would be some that would not.”
If you would like to learn more about this new policy change — or are curious about enrolling yourself or child back in school you can contact your school districts special education director.
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