A Note About The Coming Special Ed Class Size Changes

UPDATE: As of 3:30 PM on Monday, the board packet still had a placeholder where the special ed plan should be.

This from Bev Johns:

The ISBE Board Agenda for January 22 and 23, 2014
was placed on the ISBE website Friday night. 

In the attached Board Packet there is a BLANK PAGE
labeled PLACEHOLDER, Part 226,
where the proposed new wording of 226.730 should be.

This is exactly what ISBE did in February, 2013, when
State Supt. Chris Koch first proposed the elimination
of State special education class size limits.

The afternoon before the February Board meeting the proposal
was finally put on the ISBE website.

This is an unacceptable way to attempt to change a State rule
that would affect every student, every teacher and every parent.


Here's the agenda. Note that they're going to talk about special ed class sizes in Section VIII "Rules For Adoption," Subsection C. Part 226 (Special Education) (class size/composition)

Then when you flip through the board packet,  you find the placeholder on p. 338.

It looks like something out of Mike Madigan's statement of deeply held beliefs!


Anyway, Bev is saying that the thing they're voting on adopting next week-- whether it's written yet or not--- isn't being made available to the public. It's hard to feel outraged over a blank page, and I imagine that's the strategy.

We're a banana republic state. People need to keep making calls until it's over.