Each year Arlington SEPTA asks each School Board candidate questions relating to special education and shares their unedited answers for your information. Arlington SEPTA is a non-partisan organization and does not endorse specific candidates. Instead we provide this information for our community so each individual can make an informed decision. For more information on voting in Arlington
visit: https://vote.arlingtonva.gov/Elections
This year there one open seat on the Arlington County School Board as Mary Kadera is not seeking re-election. Three candidates will be on the November 4th ballot (listed below in order of last name):
Monique A. “Moe” Bryant
James “Vell” Rives IV
Major Mike Webb
*Please note, at the time of publishing this post we were not able to contact Major Webb’s campaign for a response to the questionnaire. We will update this page if we receive his answers prior to November 4th.
To view candidate responses you can click on each question below to view responses from each candidate (listed in alphabetical order by the candidates’ last names.) Or you can see the full set of each candidate’s responses here:
Moe Bryant’s SEPTA Questionnaire Response
Vell Rives’ SEPTA Questionnaire Response
Additionally, Virginia PTA has provided information from Virginia executive branch candidates and their perspectives on public education and PTA priorities. Click here for more information.
Questions
QUESTION 10. How will you engage with the disability community and/or SEPTA if you are elected?
School Board Candidate Questionnaire Responses by Question
Question 1: Please describe your experience working with or on behalf of children with disabilities. How will this experience impact your work on the School Board?
Moe Bryant
As a parent of children with overlapping and diverse special needs, I understand firsthand the importance of ensuring that every child is seen and supported for who they are. In addition to my personal experience, I serve on the County’s Developmental Disability Committee, where I advocate for equitable access, resources, and inclusion for individuals with disabilities and their families. These experiences have shaped my deep beliefin empathy as a guiding principle. As a School Board member, I will continue to listen to families, collaborate with educators, and champion policies that ensure students with disabilities have equitable opportunities to thrive not only in specialized programs, but in every classroom within APS and throughout the community.
Vell Rives
In high school I served during church services as a regular sitter for several adults with intellectual disabilities, and one summer I was employed as the head counselor for adults with intellectual disabilities attending a day camp. Those experiences helped me start to understand the everyday and long-term challenges faced by the persons we describe as special – and their families.
In my current work as a psychiatrist, many of my patients have mental and emotional disabilities requiring accommodations in their employment. My adolescent patients often have IEP’s, 504 plans, and disciplinary problems that may originate from their illness or disability. My role here is specialized; I am usually one of many professionals working with a person who, for various reasons, is not doing well. My interactions with employers and schools involve a lot of documentation but, disappointingly, little actual conversation about my patients to exchange ideas and concerns that don’t fit within the paperwork. In both the private and public sectors, regulations and bureaucracy choke out the personal element of disability work. Too often, even basic human decency seems missing. These experiences are part of the perspective I bring to the table as I consider input from students, families, and teachers alike.
Question 2: What do you believe are the most significant issues or challenges within APS relating to students with disabilities? As a School Board Member, how will you address them?
Moe Bryant
One of the most significant challenges within APS is the inconsistency in how Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) are implemented and communicated. Families often face a system that feels confusing or adversarial, rather than collaborative. As a School Board Member, I will advocate for transparent communication between families and schools and ongoing training for educators on inclusive practices and trauma-informed care. My focus will be on engagement, by rebuilding trust through transparency and genuine partnership with families.
Vell Rives
(A) Recruitment and retention of excellent staff and maintaining consistent quality of services from school to school. These two problems are closely related. See question 3.
(B) The bureaucracy of special education services, well-intended to ensure fairness and scrutiny, has become a burden: families may be overwhelmed, and staff can become defensive and self-protective. Staff configuration should aim to have a few staff who know a student well rather than several layers of staff who have limited interaction with each student. Because disability services must be so highly customized, those working most closely with a student are in the best position to advocate for a student as well as to make the best strategic choices.
(C) Bullying and harassment of students with disabilities. See question 8.
(D) maintaining optimal access to instruction time and inclusion in general education. See questions 5 and 6. (E) disparities in application of discipline to students with disabilities. See question 6.
Question 3: What steps should APS take to improve hiring and retention of high-quality and diverse Special Education teachers and staff, including related service providers and special education assistants?
Moe Bryant
Retention begins with respect. Our Special Education teachers, assistants, and related service providers must be valued and supported as essential members of the school community. I will advocate for reviewing caseload management, improving compensation and benefits, and creating peer to peer mentorship opportunities for new staff. APS must also prioritize recruiting
educators who reflect the diversity of our students and communities. Excellence in hiring means not only filling positions, but ensuring educators have the resources and professional growth opportunities to stay and succeed.
Vell Rives
I will make student-facing staff positions a budget priority for both General and Special Education. Reducing class sizes, even in General Education, will improve the quality of instruction and individualized attention available to Special Education students. We may well have to pay more; I am open to creative policy changes to attract and retain the specialists we need in Special Education, such as offering employees in under-supplied fields signing and/or continuance bonuses. And often, welcomed as much or more than higher pay, are changes such as additional planning and collaboration time and reducing the amount of non-teaching tasks expected of teachers.
Question 4: How should APS ensure General Education teachers are adequately prepared to instruct and meet the needs of students with disabilities?
Moe Bryant
Inclusion cannot succeed if General Education teachers feel unprepared. APS should provide comprehensive professional development to teachers for students of all abilities, differentiated instruction, and behavioral support strategies. I will advocate for dedicated collaboration time between General Education and Special Education staff. True engagement and collaboration require shared ownership; when all educators view students with disabilities as our students, every classroom becomes more inclusive and effective.
Vell Rives
Smaller class sizes and fewer non-teaching responsibilities for General Education teachers would help immensely. Beyond that, APS should hire dually certified general/special education teachers whenever possible. General and special education teachers need common planning time to collaborate, both for students they are co-teaching and also for those whom they teach separately. Professional development (continuing education) for General Education teachers should incorporate Special Education topics both for overall review as well as for learning new developments in the field.
Question 5: How familiar are you with the challenges with inclusion in APS? If elected, what are the specific investments and initiatives you would promote to make meaningful progress towards improving inclusive practices for students with disabilities in APS?
Moe Bryant
I am familiar with some of the ongoing challenges APS faces around inclusion; from uneven implementation to a lack of shared understanding of what inclusion truly means. Inclusion is not simply about placement; it’s about belonging. I’m sure there are challenges that have not yet been heard. My hope is that by empowering all families, they become a part of the conversations and solutions that strengthen the entire APS community.If elected, I will support co-teaching models, evidence-based professional development, and systems to monitor inclusionoutcomes. I will also ensure student and family feedback inform my decisions. These steps are grounded in my commitment to empathy and excellence.
Vell Rives
I support the 80/80 goal of the APS strategic plan, and my own children (who have attended APS exclusively) have been in blended classes that were co-taught as well as general education classes with support staff assigned to specific students. One instance was an especially positive experience for my child. But I am aware that sometimes inclusion may need to have lesser priority, e.g. when a student has such difficulty, either behaviorally or cognitively, in a general class that they require a specialized setting in order to maintain access to their education. To make all of these settings work for students who need them, it will require significant funding and staffing, and I want to prioritize APS hiring student-facing i.e. classroom teachers. Again, decreasing General Education class sizes will have benefits for students with or without disabilities.
I support a combination of universal design and traditional “mainstreaming” practices:
As with good General Education, teachers should present and reinforce material in a variety of formats. Ideally, every student will master the full range of academic skills. Full academic inclusion can mean that a student will perform better via some modes of learning than others, and development should be encouraged in areas of weakness – the goal is not just learning, but also learning how to learn. In more extreme situations, when a certain mode of learning or demonstrating mastery is significantly impaired or not applicable, a formal accommodation should be applied individually. In any case, staff should remain open to mainstreaming approaches for students whose needs are best met in a traditional classroom setting, with or without accommodations.
Question 6: Do you believe APS should take any new or different measures to support students who experience unexpected behaviors, beyond what APS is already doing? What should these be?
Moe Bryant
Students who exhibit unexpected or challenging behaviors are often communicating unmet needs. APS should continue its efforts in Social/ Emotional Learning (SEL), build on restorative practices, and trauma-informed approaches rather than relying on exclusionary discipline. As a parent and advocate, I understand that behavior is communication. I will support behavioral and mental health resources, and proactive family engagement strategies so that students are supported, not stigmatized.
Vell Rives
Students with disabilities are disciplined at rates disproportionally higher than other students. To identify and address the actionable causes of this, APS needs to continue investigating and making improvements in data collection methods (as just one example, capturing all “informal” student removals in the data). In the meantime, having students maintain access to education is usually the highest priority, so a variety of in-school solutions should be considered for immediate intervention: a student-designated aide, transfer from a general setting to a special education setting, or in-school suspension. Recognizing antecedents to problem behaviors and acting preemptively is ideal.
Question 7: What are your thoughts on APS’s implementation of new restrictions on students’ use of personal electronic devices as it relates to students with disabilities? How will you approach this as a School Board Member?
Moe Bryant
While I understand the goal of reducing distractions, we must also recognize that for some students with disabilities, technology serves as an essential accessibility tool. As a School Board Member, I will ensuredevice policies are flexible enough to accommodate assistive technology, with clear communication and consistent application. Policy decisions must be grounded in empathy and equity, not one-size-fits-all rules.
Vell Rives
I advocated for an “Away for the Day” policy for several years, and I believe APS has moved in the right direction. The implementation has sometimes been bumpy, but I expect our schools and administration can work out the logistics during this initial phase. During the school day, some students may require electronic devices for assistive, medical, or other reasons. I support granting exceptions and accommodations on a case-by-case basis. This will preserve the general expectation that devices are to be turned off and put away during school; teachers will not have to spend class time monitoring student devices, and students will be able to better engage with instruction as well as healthy interaction with classmates.
Question 8: What is your knowledge and opinion regarding bullying of students with disabilities in APS? As a School Board Member, how will you respond?
Moe Bryant
Bullying remains a serious and deeply personal issue, especially for students with disabilities, who often face additional barriers to reporting, being believed, or receiving fair resolution. As a parent, I have witnessed theharm bullying can cause and the heartbreak it brings when systems fail to protect our most vulnerable children. As a Board Member, I will advocate for stronger accountability measures and invest in social-emotional learning programs that foster empathy, respect, and inclusion from an early age.
Vell Rives
Students with disabilities are targets of bullying and harassment more frequently than other students. Every student is entitled to attend school and learn in an environment free from discrimination and harassment. As an aspiring School Board member, I think all students could be better protected if APS had more effective anti-bullying practices. When any student or staff is bullied, harassed, intimidated, or disrespected for any reason – no exceptions, there should be negative consequences applied to the offender. I appreciate APS’s increasing emphasis on interpersonal restoration (sometimes called “restorative justice”), but that alone is not sufficient. Developmentally appropriate, proportional consequences are needed to discourage problem behaviors. When a student with disabilities is the aggressor in bullying, preserving access to their education must be a priority throughout the behavior modification process – see question 6.
Question 9: What is your knowledge and opinion of accessibility challenges in APS facilities? How should APS address the issues?
Moe Bryant
Accessibility reflects our community’s values. Many APS facilities still face barriers, from playgrounds not designed for all learners to ensuring basic accessibility in all areas of design models. APS should conduct regular accessibility audits, apply Universal and Adaptable Design principles to all new construction and renovations, and maintain transparency when barriers or challenges arise.
Vell Rives
I know there is wide variation in accessibility between newer and older facilities, and that there have been shortcomings with new facilities that have been expensive to correct. Obviously, new construction must comply with code, but that is only a minimum starting point for accessibility. As for improving the accessibility of existing, “grandfathered” facilities (i.e., exempt from current county codes), I want to make upgrades and maintenance a budget priority, and I would like to see the timeline for planned upgrades accelerated. I am aware this is harder to promote than exciting new projects, but I aim to give it the attention it deserves. As with many special education issues, improvement here will benefit all APS students and staff.
Question 10: How will you engage with the disability community and/or SEPTA if you are elected?
Moe Bryant
Community partnership is essential. I will continue to maintain open communication with the disability community, by attending meetings, hosting listening sessions, and ensuring their feedback directly informs my decisions. I believe engagement means more than one conversation, it’s consistent collaboration to center the voices of those often unheard and their families.
Vell Rives
During these campaigns (this is my fourth!) I continue to learn so much about the range of student and family experiences in APS, and I will strive to keep listening and learning as a board member. I would be happy to serve as the Board liaison to ASEAC, and I will consider the disability community in my work with all of my liaison assignments. I will of course respond to all communications from SEPTA and ASEAC, and I will take initiative to correct any breakdowns in process or communication.
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