Arlington SEPTA members and other parents/guardians and staff members — please consider extending our voices for students with disabilities by joining advisory groups, committees, and councils, to use your own voice! Let’s try to have coverage (ideally voting members where there’s a distinction) on all of the following: General info on citizen advisory groups: https://www.apsva.us/citizen-advisory-groups/ General […]
Arlington SEPTA Seeks Family Feedback on Access to Advanced Courses and Foreign Language
Arlington Special Education PTA (SEPTA) would like to hear from families of students with disabilities and their experience accessing advanced courses and foreign languages classes in Arlington Public Schools (APS). This survey is administered by Arlington SEPTA’s Advocacy Committee, not APS. The SEPTA Advocacy Committee will use the feedback from this survey to better understand […]
Changes to Virginia SOL “cut scores” and opportunity for stakeholder input
(Updated Nov. 1, 2025) What Happened: The Virginia Board of Education (VDOE) recently voted to approve new higher “cut scores” for its end-of-year Standards of Learning Assessments, or “SOLs.” This means students in Virginia’s public schools, including APS, will soon have to achieve higher scores to achieve a passing score on an SOL assessment and be deemed “proficient.” You […]
Action Alert: Advocate Now for the Office of Special Education and OSERS
Last week the Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) within the Department of Education was in effect extinguished with sweeping layoffs. This move is a threat to our students with disabilities and their futures. We will update this page below with information and resources on what happened, why it matters and WHAT YOU […]
2025 School Board Candidates Respond to SEPTA Questionnaire
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 […]
Submit Questions for the Superintendent Chat by September 28th
2025 Superintendent Team ChatTuesday, October 7, 20257:00 – 9:00 pmIn-Person at Syphax Education Center, Rm 454Virtual available via ZoomRSVP: https://forms.gle/k85v1vU8nkeAEse36 Submit Questions for Arlington SEPTA’s Superintendent Team Chat by Sunday, September 28th at midnight. To submit questions go to https://forms.gle/kDYdHjaVtZynfLvP8 Each year, Arlington SEPTA hosts a “Super Chat” with the current APS Superintendent and Office […]
SEPTA Seeking Feedback on the Impact of a Possible Loss of IDEA Funding
On August 29th, Dr. Duran sent the message below to the APS community. SEPTA would like to hear from you. Please use our Community Feedback Form (https://www.arlingtonsepta.org/community-feedback/) to tell us about the impact of any possible loss of IDEA or other funding to families of students with disabilities. To help you understand how APS allocates the budget affected please refer […]
New 2025 Virginia Legislation Alert
For parents’ awareness, here are 14 new Virginia laws that may impact students with disabilities: Physical and Mental Health: Disabilities and IEPs: School Discipline and Threat Assessments: School Facilities:
What You can do to Advocate for Special Education
SEPTA community: These are unsettling times. We hear your questions about the future of special education and your concerns for ensuring children with disabilities will have continued access to the services and supports they need to succeed in school and in the community, and that schools will have sufficient funding to provide them. We are […]
2024 School Board Candidate Responses to SEPTA Questionnaire
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. This year there are two seats […]