The beginning of November always brings a few things for the special education supervision department at ESU 5. First, it brings the end of October. October is the month where special education final financials get completed for our schools and Nancy and Allison worked incredibly hard in helping our districts to get these submitted. These final financials take countless hours of work and we are grateful to the bookkeepers and superintendents for working hand in hand with us.
Second, November brings the special education law conference which is always a good time to review some important subjects. One of the most important things that schools can do is to make sure that they communicate in a way that is professional. Districts that struggle with effective communication are at risk if a due process claim is made. For that reason, the following suggestions are good to keep in mind.
- In a due process or trial situation, your communications may be pulled during the discovery process. This may include personal email, personal text messages, school email, Facebook messages, etc.
- Use the school’s email system when sending emails regarding students or special education processes - Don’t use your personal email
- Do not put your frustrations in emails or texts. You never know who is going to end up seeing this information.
- Do not use the “reply all” button unless you are familiar with all of the participants. Even then, use this judiciously. It is tough to rebuild a relationship when you criticized a parent and didn’t realize that they were on the email.
- Add the names/email addresses only after the email has been written and reviewed
- Once you hit the “SEND” button, you lose control of the information that is in that email
- Hitting the “DELETE” button does not make the email go away
Quotes from an attorney on communication:
- “Do not send an email that you (or your superintendent) would not want published on the front page of your local newspaper or read aloud by a hearing officer”
- “If you wouldn’t say it directly to the person, do not put it in an email”
- “It is easier to walk down the hall and have a face-to-face conversation with another teacher than it is to be cross examined at a due process hearing”
Finally, November is a month for Thanksgiving. We are grateful for many things here at ESU 5 but most importantly we are thankful for our schools for the work that they do every day with students. We are grateful to all of our staff that work so hard for our school districts. Thank you all for all of the hard work that you do to make our children’s lives better. Happy Thanksgiving!!!
Author: Dr. Matt McNiff