Special Education Monitoring and Reporting

To support students with disabilities in the District of Columbia, the Office of the State Superintendent of Education (OSSE) monitors local education agencies (LEAs) and their special education policies, practices and procedures to ensure they are following state and federal guidelines pertaining to special education. As the state education agency, OSSE conducts annual monitoring activities of LEAs’ implementation of free appropriate public education (FAPE) under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA). Monitoring may include a variety of activities including student record reviews, database reviews and onsite visits and may result in the issuance of findings of noncompliance. OSSE provides universal and targeted technical assistance to support correction of noncompliance, address areas of systemic noncompliance and support capacity building with individual LEAs.

OSSE has authority under both federal and local law to establish, operate and maintain an administrative process to ensure compliance with IDEA. Under IDEA, all states are responsible for the implementation of a General Supervision System for the District which includes monitoring the implementation of the IDEA Part B and its accompanying regulations.