Contact Compliance and Legal Issues regarding special education matters including the identification, evaluation, educational placement, and provision of a free and appropriate public education (FAPE) for a student with a disability or suspected of having a disability under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA 2004). 

In addition to monitoring all special education compliance activities, the Program Manager of Compliance and Legal Issues oversees the Private/Religious student referral process, the Bilingual Student Assessment Team, the Diagnostic/Prescriptive Student Assessment Team, Special Education Transportation, Autism Waiver, and the PowerSchool Special Programs Office.

Compliance/Legal Office activities include:

• Assisting schools and parents with compliance issues and/or situations regarding students and the special education process.

• Working with families to provide technical support in understanding and accessing their procedural safeguards under the IDEA 2004.

• Safeguarding the rights of students with disabilities by providing professional development and technical support to schools regarding compliance and provision of educational services to students with disabilities.

• Providing professional development regarding special education compliance issues to school administrators, central office and school-based special educators, and related service providers.

• Developing and conducting internal compliance monitoring activities.

• Facilitating and assisting with MSDE compliance monitoring activities.

• Facilitating the processes available to parents to appeal special education decisions related to their child, including mediations, dispute resolution meetings, and due process hearings. In addition, the Compliance/Legal Issues Office responds to Office of Civil Rights (OCR) and Maryland State Department of Education (MSDE) complaints.

• Recruiting, training, and providing parent surrogates to students without parents the special education purposes.

• Supporting the facilitated IEP process which provides trained facilitators from the Anne Arundel Conflict Resolution Center to facilitate ongoing communication and collaboration between families and school staff to reach

• consensus during the IEP meeting process.  

Private/Religious Student Referral Process:

Parents of students attending private or religious schools in Anne Arundel who want to make a referral for their child to be evaluated for special education eligibility should contact the Child Identification Support Technician at (410) 424-3287.  The technician will provide the parents with the referral paperwork and assist them in communicating with the appropriate AACPS school team.  If a student attending a private or religious school is found to be eligible for special education, and they reside in Anne Arundel County, an initial IEP will be developed to make an offer of a free and appropriate public education. Should parents choose to have their child remain at a private or religious school, and a student is found eligible for speech and language services, the team will draft a service plan.  If a student is a resident of Anne Arundel County but is attending a private or religious school in another county, the parents may share the evaluation with the county of the private/religious school for consideration of a service plan.

Diagnostic Prescriptive Student Assessment

The purpose of the Diagnostic Prescriptive Student Assessment Team (D/P SAT) is to assist schools with concerns regarding the student, that cannot be solved/resolved at the school level.  A request for assistance from the Diagnostic/Prescriptive Student Assessment Team must begin at the school by contacting their (Central Office) Special Education Resource Teacher (SERT).  D/P SAT activities may include assisting schools with the special education process, possible identification of an educational disability and appropriate programming as needed. The D/P SAT consists of a School Psychologist, Speech/Language Pathologist and Special Educator.

Autism Waiver

The Autism Waiver, through Medical Assistance, will allow eligible children with autism spectrum disorder to receive additional waiver services to support them in their home and community.  The Autism Waiver Office is responsible for administering the waiver to eligible families. Services to support the child in the community may include respite care, environmental accessibility adaptations, family training, supported employment, day habilitation (regular/intensive/therapeutic), residential habilitation, and targeted case management.

PowerSchool Special Programs: 

PowerSchool Special Programs is an electronic management system of the special education process. The Statewide IEP is developed using PowerSchool Special Programs.  The PowerSchool Special Programs Office provides:

• Continual updates/revision and creation of Special Education Forms through the PowerSchool Programs as necessary, to align with legislative updates/State changes.

• Ongoing Internal Compliance Monitoring to avoid MSDE imposed Corrective Action Plans (CAPS).

• Internal Compliance Monitoring through the PowerSchool Special Programs to align with state/federal Indicators and State Performance Plan (SPP) and provide technical assistance to schools when monitoring indicates out of compliance activity.

• Submission and Monitoring of Special Education Child Count and Exit Count Data to MSDE.

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