[submitted to the DC Council December 10, 2025]
Thank you, Chairman Mendelson and CMs, for allowing me the opportunity to submit comments regarding special education in the District. My name is Julie Camerata and I am the Executive Director of the DC Special Education Cooperative or the Co-op. The Co-op serves 59 charter LEAs and our vision is that all students with disabilities in the District of Columbia are empowered and equipped to lead meaningful and connected lives. I would like to ask the Council to consider three recommendations.
First, the city needs ambitious goals for students with disabilities. These goals must be based on data and center outcomes. In order to chart this path, we recommend the following:
- The city needs access to data. OSSE should update its 2019 Special Education Landscape analysis. This comprehensive data will allow the city to develop a strategic set of priorities and allocate resources accordingly. We also strongly recommend that OSSE make it easier for LEAs to access their special education compliance data by developing a real-time dashboard that pulls metrics from its Special Education Progress Report (SEPR). Currently, LEAs receive reports with stale data (the 2025 reports are from school year 2023-2024) which can be a barrier to programmatic improvement.
- The city needs a comprehensive, citywide Professional Learning strategy that accelerates improving outcomes for students with disabilities. The Co-op’s ALL IN summit which brought together LEA leaders, parents, students, and policymakers, offered a set of recommendations for improving special education. One of the recommendations [ALL IN report] highlighted the need for all teachers to have a basic understanding of special education. While this was anecdotal data, we believe that when coupled with the subgroup’s CAPE scores, there is a certain need to take another look at the current approach.
- The city needs to spend more time focusing on what is working and finding ways to elevate and scale solutions. In November, my colleague was here to speak with you about our Demonstration Classrooms [Demonstration Classroom Case Study]. Demonstration Classrooms are high-quality, open-laboratory learning environments that showcase evidence-based, high-leverage practices and demonstrate how these practices can be replicated city-wide. These models are transforming how schools approach special education by helping educators see what inclusive, data-driven, high-expectation leadership and teaching looks like in action. At all four of our Demo classrooms, students with disabilities are posting growth scores that outpace city averages for this group. Demonstration Classrooms are creating a network of change that is raising expectations, closing opportunity gaps, and making equity real in our schools. As you consider budget priorities, I urge the Council to:
- Consider creating an innovation fund that would support initiatives like the Co-op’s Demonstration classrooms.
- Visit one of our Demonstration sites this spring to observe equity in action.
We all should understand what is at stake— Our Demonstration sites show us what’s possible. Let’s ensure that the success seen at our demonstration partner schools Bridges, Latin, Thurgood Marshall, and DC Bilingual becomes the standard across every school in the District.
As we strengthen these systems for students with disabilities, we must also turn to the next frontier shaping their educational experience—the rapidly expanding use of AI in classrooms. We know that schools and teachers are utilizing generative AI as a tool for lesson planning, differentiation, and even writing IEPs. While we are optimistic that this will create efficiencies for staff and improve outcomes for students, there needs to be guardrails put in place, and there is a role for city leaders in that work. We strongly encourage the city to develop guidance for LEAs specifically on the use of AI in Special Education. I am including a link to a white paper entitled Prioritizing Students with Disabilities in AI Policy authored by the Educating All Learners Alliance and New America. It clearly lays out a roadmap for policymakers that we suggest be considered.
Finally, I’d like to recommend that OSSE reconsiders its proposal to create an Applied Studies Diploma within the reimagined graduation requirements. While we applaud OSSE for its attempt to increase rigor and access for students with disabilities, the way this “diploma” has been designed is misleading. First and foremost, it is in fact, not a diploma and will not afford students who receive it access to post-secondary education and training programs. I participated in several listening sessions and this was not immediately clear to me. We recommend that OSSE conduct another round of listening sessions for LEAs and parents. We suggest that these sessions allow more time for listening and less for presenting. Last week we attended a listening session hosted by SBOE Representative, LaJoy Johnson-Law. There were approximately 25 parents, an LEA leader, and a few organizations on the 2-hour call, this was an exemplar of parent engagement; we suggest OSSE use this model for future sessions with both parents and LEAs.
Thank you for the opportunity to share our thoughts with you.