Resource
Testimony: District of Columbia Public Schools Oversight (FY16)
Senior Policy Attorney Renee Murphy testified before the DC Council’s Committee on Education regarding the District of Columbia Public Schools’ (DCPS) FY 2015 performance. In her testimony, she focuses her discussion on special education, the needs of students and families who speak English as a second language, truancy and discipline, and creating trauma-informed schools.
While her testimony provides constructive recommendations for improving DCPS’s schools, Renee also highlights some of the agency’s promising initiatives, including:
- The continuing public-private partnership with The Ivymount School to build high-quality programming for a specific group of children with high-functioning autism and expand a relevant, proven curriculum from the program to other schools serving students with learning disabilities;
- The continued use of Lindamood Bell, a state-of-the-art program of direct reading instruction, with children in full-time early childhood special education classrooms;
- Expanding the number of external organizations conducting prekindergarten developmental screenings; and
- Opening the Workforce Development Center at River Terrace Education Campus as a one-year vocational training center for students with disabilities.
Click below to read her full testimony.