On March 22, 2023, the D.C. Policy Center’s article, State of D.C. Schools, 2021-22: In-Person Learning, Measuring Outcomes, and Work on Recovery, was cited by The Washington Informer:
During the earlier part of March, the D.C. Policy Center released its State of D.C. Schools 2021-2022 report which showed the incremental decline in public and public charter school enrollment among special-needs students in District since the start of the pandemic.
The report said that students with disabilities experienced high levels of absenteeism. They also had the lowest learning outcomes during the 2021-2022 school year, as seen in their scores on the Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Career, also known as PARCC. Researchers attributed that, in part, to staffing vacancies that prevented students from receiving speech and language services and, in some cases, relegated them to a general education classroom without support.
The State of D.C. Schools 2021-2022 report also showed that parents within that time frame increasingly expressed concerns about the quality, and level of access, of support services; at least one in five parents made calls to the Office of the Student Advocate and the Office of the Ombudsman of Public Education. Those calls, according to the report, centered on children not receiving the number of service hours outlined in their individualized education plan, also known as an IEP.