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Under Section 504, if a parent or guardian believes that their child has not received or is not receiving FAPE, does not have equal access to other services provided by the school, or did not receive or is not receiving appropriate compensatory services, they may seek a hearing under the school’s Section 504 due process procedures or file a complaint with OCR. A school’s agreement to provide compensatory services is one way OCR remedies disability compliance issues when appropriate.
- Providing Students with Disabilities Free Appropriate Public Education During the COVID-19 Pandemic and Addressing the Need for Compensatory Services Under Section 504 The U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights issued this fact sheet to remind elementary and secondary public schools of their obligations under Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973 to provide appropriate evaluations and services to students with disabilities during the COVID-19 pandemic, including schools’ responsibility to provide compensatory services.
Recovery Services
Recovery services may be needed for
- students who did not receive special education services
- students who were unable to access special education services during the spring/summer 2020 closure
- students who have newly identified needs since March 2020 that may warrant recovery services for a successful return to school
The data will be used to show the actual impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the child’s learning, as well as identifying new or emerging needs.
Recovery services are not mandatory, but are recommended and should be considered on a continuum from least restrictive to most restrictive to ensure that the student receives FAPE in the least restrictive environment.
Recovery services
- Must align with the IEP
- May not necessarily replicate services currently in the IEP, including the frequency, duration and type of service
- Are an effort to support the student in making progress in the general education curriculum without further delay
- Must supplement, not supplant services provided as part of the current offer of FAPE
- Are intended to support the achievement of IEP goals
- Can be provided within the typical school day
Recovery services are not a required part of IDEA or MARSE, but is a beneficial approach for parents and districts to work together to help students. Parents still have all of their procedural safeguards and dispute resolution options.
In this video, Guidance to Address Foregone Learning for Students with IEPs as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic Webinar Teri Rink, Director of the Office of Special Education at Michigan Department of Education, reviews the guidance document. This guidance covers the consideration of recovery services to address the needs of students with disabilities who may have been additionally impacted by the loss of instruction due to the pandemic during Spring 2020.
- Guidance to Address Foregone Learning for Students with IEPs as a Result of the COVID-19 Pandemic Students with IEPs may benefit from recovery services due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Recovery services are supplemental to the offer of FAPE and are in response to foregone learning that may have occurred as a result of closure during the pandemic and the potential additional impact of the loss for a student with an IEP. 7-7-2020
- Comparison of Compensatory Education and Recovery Services Due to COVID-19 When determining whether recovery services are required, the IEP team must consider the actual impact of the extended school closure on the student’s ability to retain skills and make progress toward their IEP goals and in the general curriculum. 6-2020
- Determining The Need for and Amount of Compensatory Education MDE
