This petition is designed to draw attention to the issue of school boards of education refusing to accept email as an appropriate form of communications:

 

A school district has a policy adopted which provides as follows:

The school district will not accept the use of electronic mail from the parent(s) to submit requests to a school official regarding referral, identification, evaluation, classification, and the provision of a free, appropriate public education.

We dispute interpretation and definition of what constitutes a requirement that parents provide requests “in writing.”

One goal of Congress in passing the 1997 Amendments to the IDEA was to strengthen the role of parents in the educational decision-making process. (http://www.wrightslaw.com/info/test.iee.steedman.htm):

Several sections of the federal regulations direct local school systems to ensure that such information provided by parents is properly considered. (See 34 C.F.R. §§300.343(c)(2)(iii), 300.503(c), 300.533(a)(1)(i))

Maryland United States District Court ruled that an IEP team's failure to consider … "the parents was such a serious violation of the IDEA that this alone constituted a denial of a free appropriate public education. DiBuo v. Bd. Of Educ. of Worcester County, slip no. S-01-1311 (Nov. 14, 2001)."

One court held:
"[T]he failure to receive and consider parental information, including evaluations they may obtain, directly denies parents the pivotal role they should enjoy in the development of their child's placement. This role includes not only providing evaluations or other information, but discussing such information. Consideration of such outside information also ensures that a program is individualized and provides a check on the judgments being made by school officials regarding the child." (Community Consolidated Sch. Dist. No. 180, 27 IDELR 1004, 1005-06)

The needs of children - and special needs children - are the whole reason a school district and its administration exist.

A state department of education investigation concluded that “in writing” does not constitute electronic communications – that a policy of not accepting requests in email is a legal, acceptable standard and does not meet the specification of “in writing.”
However, this definition is the equivalent of erecting architectural barriers for disabled students:

Families [with special needs children] are more isolated, have significantly limited access to perform the basic activities of living such as grocery shopping or buying stamps in a post office or envelopes, or even printers; are economically challenged. There is no child care or limited community supports. Much time is spent sharing the one family car or coordinating rides through the graciousness of others, meeting medical professionals for medication management and therapy, counseling, ensuring necessary medications are available at school, dealing with insurance companies and – most importantly – keeping in close contact with teachers, personal aides, and other school professionals about children.

The nature of a school district's Special Services office means its mission is to support the needs of special needs students and their families:

"… [To] Promote aspects of students’ well-being by exercising the highest level of professional judgment, and working cooperatively and productively with colleagues and parents to provide a safe, healthy, and emotionally protective learning environment ... "

Legislative findings and decisions support that the purpose of actions are to set standards that support parents and their involvement in their children’s education.
Local publicly available Board of Education policies are incomplete and in direct conflict with provisions of other federal and state statutes and regulations; in the case of special services offices specifically, districts are ethically compelled to relax or dispense with any barriers that are inappropriate or unnecessary and result in injustice, as in:

"Office of Controversies and Disputes administrative code.
6A:3-1.16 Relaxing of rules
The rules in this chapter shall be considered general rules of practice to govern, expedite and effectuate the procedure before, and the actions of the Commissioner in connection with, the determination of controversies and disputes under the school laws. Where such rules do not reflect a specific statutory requirement or an underlying rule of the OAL, they may be relaxed or dispensed with by the Commissioner, in the Commissioner’s discretion, in any case where a strict adherence thereto may be deemed inappropriate or unnecessary or may result in injustice."

To reject an email request, when it would be appropriate to accept an email request – especially related to the educational needs of children who are disabled, is to erect barriers for those most needy of support. It is to be in conflict with the duties and ethics with which a school district is charged:

Access to a free, appropriate public education.

The benefits to children from early intervention and appropriate supports outweigh any other possible consideration.

Boards of education must be directed to “accommodate the needs of both parent(s) or legal guardian(s) for access to their child, to their child's teachers, and to information about their child.”

To affirm that “in writing” is only made possible by pen and paper in the 21st century is unconscionable and, we contend, illegal. The standards of e-discovery instituted by the federal government compel school districts to comply with acceptance of electronic communications as a viable method of engagement.

The very nature of caring and support of special needs children is in itself an extraordinary burden, and is made exponentially more complicated in families with more than one classified child.