[submitted to the State Board of Education on January 21, 2026]
Thank you, members of the Board for allowing me the opportunity to share thoughts regarding the OSSE’s Practical Studies Diploma proposal. My name is Julie Camerata, I am a Ward 1 resident, the parent of a young person with a disability, and the Executive Director of the DC Special Education Cooperative or the Co-op. The Co-op serves 60 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.
The Co-op fully supports creating more flexible and accessible pathways to graduation. We know that leaving high school without a standard diploma can create barriers to future employment, training opportunities, and funding for post-secondary education. We strongly oppose the Practical Studies Diploma, because, simply put, it is not a standard diploma and therefore students earning the Practical Studies diploma will leave high school with extremely limited opportunities.
Data on the most recent OSSE school report card reveals a 12 point graduation gap between all students -graduating at a rate of 78.7%, and students with disabilities who graduated at a rate of 66.4%. We strongly encourage OSSE to develop a second pathway that would make graduation and a standard diploma accessible to more students with disabilities.
We’d like to encourage OSSE to focus on creating a meaningful and rigorous pathway to a standard diploma for the approximately 20% of students with disabilities who are being left behind by the current system. These students do not and should not qualify for a certificate of completion. They also do not and should not qualify for the proposed Practical Studies Diploma. Instead of creating a non diploma “diploma”, we encourage OSSE to develop policy and guidance that supports LEAs in implementing accessible pathways to the standard diploma. Guidance should include specific and meaningful direction such as what accommodations and modifications can be deployed to support students with disabilities to access core content.
I fully believe that this proposal was developed with the best intentions. However it seems that OSSE is trying to create a continuum of exit credentials, and just as we don’t want to move a student from a full time general education classroom straight to a fully self-contained one, we need an option or pathway to a standard diploma before the creation of a new “diploma” that limits the post secondary options for students.
We would like to see a system that delivers on its commitment to equity; a system that not only creates options for high achieving students in the form of endorsements, but takes those students who are already at the margins into account. Please reject the proposed Practical Studies Diploma and please ask OSSE to fast track designing an additional pathway to a standard diploma.
Thank you for the opportunity to share our thoughts.
