KBY Consults

10/20/2025

It’s officially October! 🍂 Along with crisp air and fall colors, this month brings opportunities to recognize and learn about several important causes. Check out what’s being celebrated and take a moment to engage with each.

10/17/2025

🚨 URGENT REMINDER 🚨

Today is the last day!

Please review the seven principles developed by COPAA and the Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE) and add your name in support. Join advocates from across the U.S. and sign by TODAY Friday, October 17, 2025.

Let’s affirm our commitment to ensuring that children and youth with disabilities receive the education and support they need for their growth and development. The principles will be shared with policymakers and the media later this month.

🔗 Sign here: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSc3wupz_i0XCOVPLG3BR7D4OeOyZ_TM4Cj3kKTcN593qitLqA/viewform
🔗 Review the principles: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1qMA8vfjcirgnk25z8wGYdhavaLNetFz3LAfbL7EAjbE/edit?tab=t.0

Let’s make our voices heard!



ALT - White background with COPAA logo and Council of Administrators of Special Education (CASE)

10/17/2025

10/14/2025

10/12/2025

🚨 BREAKING (But also horrifyingly predictable) NEWS 🚨

Reports are flooding in that the entire Office of Special Education Programs (OSEP) has been wiped out today. Multiple reliable sources are indicating massive structural purges within the U.S. Department of Education. (Yes — “RIF purges.”)

Here’s what we know so far (and yes, the implications are terrifying for our kids with disabilities):

Disability advocacy groups and education policy watchers are sounding alarms across social media and via insider contacts.

Some district-level special education directors are scrambling, phone calls and emails confirm that OSEP contacts and liaisons have been cut or reassigned.

No official confirmation yet from the Department of Ed (they’re … silent).

What it means (and why you should be terrified)

1. Loss of oversight and technical assistance: OSEP is the division that administers IDEA (Part B and C), issues guidance, monitors compliance, provides technical assistance to states, and connects districts to resources. Without them, states lose their federal lifeline.

2. Federal funding disruption: If OSEP is defunded or dismantled, the flow of grants, formula funds, and discretionary special ed resources could stall or vanish. Programs that rely on IDEA grants (teacher training, transition services, research, early intervention) are at risk.
(We’ve already seen warnings about grant terminations under IDEA Part D and general special ed cuts.

3. Erosion of enforceability: Without a robust federal office to enforce IDEA, file complaints, investigate violations, or oversee audits, many protections become as strong as a wet paper towel. Students and families will have fewer places to go when schools break the law.

4. Deep damage to equity and access: Kids who rely on specialized instruction, aides, assistive technology, behavioral supports, transition services, vocational programs, they’re the ones who suffer first (and hardest). Cuts always hit the marginalized hardest.

5. A signal of what’s to come: Dismantling OSEP isn’t just about today. It’s a message: federal commitment to disability rights is being gutted. Already, the Department of Ed has canceled research contracts and terminated contracts around IDEA work.

What you can do (because hope is not lost)

✔️Demand transparency. Email your congressional reps. Ask them: Who ordered OSEP’s dismantling? Where will IDEA enforcement go now? How will disabled students be protected?

✔️Document everything. Keep copies of IEPs, communications, evaluations. If schools start dropping services, you’ll need every scrap of proof.

✔️Organize at the state and district level. State departments of education will (somehow) inherit the chaos. Push them to maintain protections locally.

✔️Engage the media. Local news, education reporters, they need to shine a light on what’s happening.

✔️Lean on advocacy networks. Join forces.

✔️Prepare for legal battles, or lending your voice to class complaints and lawsuits. This dismantling may violate IDEA and civil rights statutes. We’ll need court challenges.

The dismantling of OSEP is not “reform.” It’s a rollback of decades of protections for our kids with disabilities. If you think this couldn’t happen, you’re already too late.

I’ll post updates as I verify them. In the meantime: hold tight, lean in, and get ready to fight.

10/11/2025

October is National Disability Employment Awareness Month (NDEAM)! NDEAM celebrates the contributions of America’s workers with disabilities and showcases supportive, inclusive employment policies and practices.

This year, VBPD assessed two disability service areas related to employment: Pre-Employment Transition Services (Pre-ETS) and Barriers to Competitive, Integrated Employment.

We are proud to release infographics that offer a high-level overview of our findings and recommendations: https://vbpd.virginia.gov/2025/10/2025-board-assessment-infographics-now-available/

09/14/2025

Dear everyone,
This week I listened with the intent to understand as a student spoke to the team - as the students always have the answers we are seeking if we can get to that information.

While his favorite teacher was talking to him, he quickly spoke up, "Please everyone stop looking at me --- I can't take it!" He was feeling ganged up on and felt everyone was 'starring' at him. My heart sunk and I was virtual so I immediately turned off my camera to remove those eyes on him.

Since the meeting, I can't get his words off of my mind as I could literally feel the pain in the communication and I can't help but wonder how many others feel this same way --- Hell, most of us parents feel ganged up on --- so why have I not found a way to handle this before now? (It was a surprise he attended - I was not expecting it -- where normally I know and can prepare)

So, today it dawned on me -- why are we not asking our students what accommodations and modifications that they need to participate in their own meetings?

Respectfully,
Ms. Learning from the best teachers in the world -- the CHILDREN

09/14/2025

04/24/2025

Participate! 👍🏾

04/20/2025

Please Join Us for the April Spin Meeting on Tuesday, April 22, 2025. We have invited a guest speaker to share resources for home health care servuces and another speaker will discuss his learning challenges and his book, "Wesley and The River". There will be two parents that will discuss how they have supported their sons with Autism and how successful they are now. Don't miss their inspiring stories.

Time: Apr 22, 2025 06:00 PM Eastern Time

https://pwcs-zm-edu.zoom.us/j/84735594033?pwd=K5zs6dPa3kuYw4V7naPvL1hcCyXVxg.1

Meeting ID: 847 3559 4033
Passcode: 634318

04/02/2025

There will be another Protect Medicaid Call-In Day tomorrow, April 3, focused on the Senate! You can use the click to call tool – it’ll connect folks directly to their Senators: https://go.caringacross.org/a/call-congress-no-medicaid-cuts-budget

📞 Click to call your Senators: https://go.caringacross.org/a/call-congress-no-medicaid-cuts-budget

🧰 Access the Protect Medicaid Day of Action toolkit: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mqJodNXAidsdrmGX_B16XwGFphk8Mhx2c_VxiTFdUz8/edit?tab=t.0 =h.7wwt9349tj2g

💻 Check out VBPD's Protect Medicaid Resources: https://vbpd.virginia.gov/policy/

03/30/2025

Always out in the community informing others!