Arlington Public Schools

Prosecutors dismiss charges against former Arlington teachers union president, for now

By Jo DeVoe
Former Arlington Education Association President Ingrid Gant delivered remarks during a press conference in September 2021 (staff photo by Jay Westcott)

Fairfax County prosecutors are taking a step back from pursuing the embezzlement charges levied against former Arlington teachers union president, Ingrid Gant.

That decision, however, does not mean the case against Gant — who was ousted in the spring of 2022 after a 6-year tenure — is closed. The Fairfax County Office of the Commonwealth’s Attorney says Gant’s case is serious and they are keeping their options open.

“Due to the scale of this alleged embezzlement, prosecutors are continuing to investigate the facts of this case and potential steps forward,” Fairfax County Commonwealth’s Attorney Deputy Chief of Staff Laura Birnbaum tells ARLnow.

Gant, 54, of Woodbridge, was arrested earlier this year and charged with embezzling more than $400,000 from the Arlington Education Association (AEA). An accounting firm discovered the alleged mishandlings after a 6-month audit and notified Fairfax County police detectives. They found Gant provided herself with multiple bonuses and used debit cards for unauthorized purchases.

Prosecutors dismissed the charges without prejudice, meaning they can refile charges at any time, explains June Prakash, the Arlington Education Association president who replaced Gant, noting Virginia does not have a statute of limitations for felonies.

“Nevertheless, this dismissal shows up as ‘final’ on the court docket because, when later charges are filed, it will be assigned a new case number in the court’s system,” she said.

Sources familiar with financial cases say that investigations are often time-consuming because prosecutors have to sort through a high volume of bank records and other documents to prove “beyond a reasonable doubt” that a defendant committed a crime. This standard of proof is higher than what is required to arrest or charge someone with a crime.

With so many records to review, gathering evidence can take longer than court proceedings afford prosecutors. To avoid missing court deadlines, prosecutors will sometimes decline to prosecute in the short term, leaving open the option to re-file the same charges later, once all the necessary preparation is completed.

Prior to Gant’s ouster, union members said the organization had effectively stopped operating as the collective bargaining process was gaining speed. No one answered the phone, the website was down for two months and a key meeting leading up to an executive board election was canceled, raising doubts among members about the election’s fairness.

An attorney for the Virginia Education Association said in a memo that the Arlington union’s finances were in disarray and not communicated to members. Local leaders admitted the disorganization in a memo to members, saying AEA began the 2021-22 fiscal year without a budget and owed $732,000 in dues to the state and national unions.

Fairfax is handling Gant’s case because AEA headquarters is located in the Bailey’s Crossroads neighborhood of Fairfax County, just over the Arlington border.

Yet another threat at a local middle school prompts police response

By ARLnow.com
Swanson Middle School (photo via APS)

Swanson Middle School was put in “secure the school” mode this morning (Friday) due to a threat.

Initial reports suggest the school’s office received a shooting threat via email. Police responded to investigate around 10 a.m. and the security status was lifted about an hour and a half later.

This is just the latest in a series of apparent hoax threats at Arlington middle schools.

Swanson was locked down Monday due to a phoned-in bomb threat. Gunston was locked down Tuesday due to a threat found in a bathroom. Last week another threat found in a Gunston girls’ bathroom prompted a police investigation.

In March, Gunston was put in lockdown after “a message written inside a restroom stall referencing gun violence” was discovered. In May, a Kenmore student was charged after an implied shooting threat was posted on social media. Threats have also been made at high schools, with police investigating a verbal threat of “shooting up the class” at Washington-Liberty on Monday.

More on the latest threat, below, via Arlington Public Schools.

New docs show APS had no formal contract with Kaiser, which admits it ‘dropped the ball’

By Jo DeVoe
AEA members protest the Kaiser contract termination during the Thursday, Oct. 12 School Board meeting (staff photo by James Jarvis)

Threads from the decision to change insurance providers for Arlington Public Schools staff continue to unravel.

When APS entered a new contract with CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield this year, ending a 36-year relationship with Kaiser Permanente this September, it drew the ire of teachers, retired and active.

Stressed by having to find new providers mid-year, some criticized APS leadership for being opaque and disrespectful. APS apologized to staff for how it went about providing this information.

The most recent revelation is that APS says it has no record of a formal contract with Kaiser Permanente, with whom it instead had yearly extension agreements.

The healthcare provider, however, says it was under the impression it had a continuously operating contract since 1986 but ultimately conceded to APS that it “dropped the ball,” according to correspondence between the school system and the company, provided to ARLnow.

“The traditional way of entering into an agreement for the services provided by Kaiser would be for the two parties to sign an agreement,” a school system spokesman said. “However, there is no record of this happening. Instead, the services were renewed annually through a renewal rate sheet provided by Kaiser.”

Kaiser does not see it that way, though. The provider says it has operated “under a sole source contract” continuously since 1986 and that this contract was amended in 2022 to include three one-year extensions, according to a September letter from Kaiser to APS, provided to ARLnow. The letter requests APS reverse course on its decision.

APS submitted Requests for Proposals in December and again in January because its annual extension with Kaiser was coming to a close, as was a concurrent agreement with Cigna. It initially sought one provider but rewrote the RFP to allow for two contracts and extend the deadline.

APS ultimately awarded the deal to CareFirst and did not receive a bid from Kaiser. Citing procurement rules, it maintains it could not reach out to Kaiser directly for a bid during this time.

APS also disputes Kaiser’s characterization that the agreement was a “sole source contract,” or, one that is issued outside a competitive bidding process because only one company is able to provide the requested services.

The argument that Kaiser could enjoy this privilege is that, unlike traditional health insurers, it provides the bulk of the healthcare services itself. APS, however, says “it would be impossible” to recommend a sole source contract with Kaiser because there is competition, as evinced by the several proposals it received.

In its plea to APS to reverse course, Kaiser points out the school system did not mention a forthcoming termination when it confirmed services would extend through 2023. This confirmation letter, provided to ARLnow, is sparse, informing Kaiser of the renewal through Dec. 31, 2023 and noting “all other terms and conditions shall remain unchanged,” with no mention of available extensions.

In response, APS told the company it has no record of a two-way agreement and that it cannot reverse course.

“APS is not able to show that a two-way agreement was issued between APS and Kaiser for the Services,” the letter said. “In an attempt to provide a more formal structure to the renewal process, a two-party amendment was introduced in 2023… There is no mention of it being a second extension.”

In a follow-up email, the provider noted its team “dropped the ball” and requested further conversations to understand what went wrong.

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To tackle underage vaping, APS may push law preventing smoke shops near schools

By Jo DeVoe
A smoke shop and 7-Eleven (right) across the street from Kenmore Middle School (via Google Maps)

Arlington Public Schools is mulling support for legislation that would allow localities to prevent vape shops from opening up near schools.

This is the first time the idea for such a bill has been considered as part of the School Board’s annual legislative package, according to Frank Bellavia, a spokesman for the school system. The package has not yet been approved by the Board.

“Lawmakers around the region have been discussing this issue recently, which drew our interest,” Bellavia said. “We’ve been speaking with Senator [Barbara] Favola and Delegate [Alfonso] Lopez about this so far but may speak with others about it as well.”

Interest in such a bill comes as APS is upping its focus on tackling youth substance use in schools through lessons on the impacts of vaping delivered to students in grades 4-12 and to their families. While fentanyl abuse has captured more community attention, vaping is a significant concern, particularly as students matriculate through high school.

For instance, exposure to and frequent vaping increased from 9th to 12th grade, according to the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey. Bellavia says this is the most recent data that APS has on vaping trends, though another such survey will be conducted next year and inform the school system’s advocacy.

Vaping rates among Arlington high schoolers, broken down by grade (by ARLnow)

Notably, per the survey, nearly 200 students under 18 reported buying their own vape products at convenience stores, gas stations or vape stores.

The survey was conducted just before the state raised the minimum age for buying tobacco products from 18 to 21.

Vaping rates among Arlington high schoolers, broken down by race (by ARLnow)

That is where a law limiting where vape shops can do business could come in. As for a potential legislative push, Bellavia says APS is still early in the process of formulating possible legislative text that would inform a potential bill. The school system will have more details in a few weeks, he noted.

Lawmakers representing Arlington in Richmond tell ARLnow they are interested in sponsoring or voting for such a bill or other bills firming up requirements of vape shops to curtail underage sales. Currently, nearly 17% of sales are to minors and the state would incur a $4 million penalty if the rate were to exceed 20%, according to a state report released last week and provided to ARLnow.

“I am interested in giving localities the authority to prevent vape shops from locating near schools and look forward to discussing this idea at the legislative work session with the County Board,” said Favola.

Sen. Adam Ebbin and Del. Patrick Hope say underage vaping has concerned them for years but they are not sure preventing shops from moving near schools is enough. Moreover, such a law could not be used to boot out existing retailers near schools.

“We have a real epidemic right now — not just among high schoolers but junior high schoolers — who are vaping,” says Ebbin. “It’s highly addictive and nicotine has adverse consequences on young developing brains.”

He and Hope say the state ought to require shops or dealers who sell nicotine products to obtain licenses where they currently are only subject to a law banning the sale of nicotine products to those under 21 years old. In the 2023 legislative session, both tried to pass a licensing scheme, which would tee up the state to inspect stores and fine or ban those that repeatedly sell to minors.

“We have a problem in Virginia of underage vaping,” Hope said. “I think the solution to the underage issue is licensure… because it is ultimate death for these establishments. They would have to close their doors.”

Hope says penalties for selling to minors are weak, making it harder to enforce the law effectively. Violating this rule carries a civil penalty, applied to the business, and even a third offense only carries a $500 fine whereas a licensing scheme could carry stiffer penalties and ultimately result in banning bad actors who sell to minors from ever being able to sell nicotine products in Virginia again, he said.

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APS makes pitch for more math specialists as it tackles achievement gaps exacerbated by Covid

By Jo DeVoe
APS Elementary Math Supervisor Shannan Ellis speaks during the School Board meeting on Thursday, Oct. 12, 2023 (via Arlington Public Schools)

Arlington Public Schools says it is closing a math achievement gap worsened by Covid.

But a School Board watchdog group says the school system’s new progress report is missing pre-Covid data and paints a misleading picture of how far APS still has to go.

Overall, every student subgroup Arlington tracks — based on race or ethnicity or economic status, for instance — saw gains since in-person school resumed, according to the APS math office, which presented new data to the Arlington School Board during its Oct. 12 meeting. The new results were part of a discussion of the work of the office and math teachers to help students recover Covid-era drops in performance on state math tests called the Standards of Learning, or SOL.

The office highlighted the growth among students who scored the lowest on math SOL tests and received support from Arlington’s 10 new math interventionists. They are stationed at three middle schools in South Arlington and all but one of Arlington’s 10 Title 1 elementary schools, which have the highest concentration of low-income students. The office noted students with access to interventionists progressed more than their peers without that support.

The distinction was played as part of a pitch for more math interventionists in the upcoming budget. Elementary Math Supervisor Shannan Ellis said teachers report students with access to interventionists demonstrate more confidence in math, think more flexibly and persist when faced with challenges.

“This is for the children in Arlington County to get what they need,” Ellis said. “These are people who are working with our students [who] have the greatest need… [where] it is either highly improbable or impossible for teachers to grow them in one or more years.”

While the presentation focused on three-year trends, a “deeper dive” into more historical math data is forthcoming, Chief Academic Officer Gerald Mann told the School Board.

For Arlington Parents for Education, which formed during the pandemic to advocate for school reopenings and a focus on Covid-era learning loss, not including pre-Covid data downplays the width and persistence of achievement gaps in Arlington.

“APS should not obscure the large remaining challenges to the School Board or the public — it still has a long way to go in terms of recovering from the learning losses caused by prolonged school closures, which have dramatically increased the gap in performance between at-risk students and other students,” it says in a recent letter. “And the rate of recovery on both dimensions is too slow. ”

Virginia Dept. of Education data show the achievement gap in Arlington among Black and Hispanic and white students, for instance, was wider than the state-level gap pre-Covid. The pandemic exacerbated these gaps.

There are similar trends in the achievement gaps for students who are economically disadvantaged or learning English.

Among its issues with the presentation, APE disputed how the presentation celebrated that, for economically disadvantaged students, “APS is closing the gap faster than the state.”

“This overlooks the point above that we are ‘closing the gap’ faster primarily because there is a bigger gap to close (in comparison to the state),” it said, noting APS ranks 65th out of 130 districts in Virginia for math SOL rates for economically disadvantaged students, which is down 10 places from its ranking in 2016-17.

“In other words, not only is APS failing to improve the performance of at-risk students at the same pace as the state, in comparison to the year 2016-17, our performance relative to other districts has declined,” the group said.

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NEW: Nottingham will not be a ‘swing space’ for upcoming school renovations, says APS

By Jo DeVoe
Nottingham Elementary School (via Google Maps)

Nottingham Elementary School will not become a swing space for other schools slated for renovations, according to Arlington Public Schools.

The administration came to this conclusion last night in a “Committee of the Whole” meeting during a preview of a forthcoming report outlining the schools in need of extensive renovations.

This report found none of the schools recommended for renovations need Nottingham to become a swing space “at this time,” per an email sent to families this morning, Wednesday, and shared with ARLnow. The email assured families the swing space proposal will not be included in the Capital Improvement Plan for 2025-34.

“There may be a need for swing space for future projects, and any swing space proposals will be communicated well in advance,” the email said. “Moving forward, a more in-depth feasibility study of any school needing major construction or renovation will be completed prior to determining when and if swing space will be needed, or if there are alternative ways to manage the project.”

This decision closes a chapter of heartache for Nottingham families and staff, opened this spring when APS proposed closing Nottingham, in the Williamsburg neighborhood at 5900 Little Falls Road, and making it a swing space as early as 2026.

APS said it chose this school because it would cost the least to retrofit compared to other schools, county facilities or commercial buildings, and because this approach would be more fiscally responsible than building a new school.

The backlash from current and future Nottingham parents was swift. Some argued APS made the decision on faulty projections of falling enrollment and criticized the system for releasing this information before a renovation plan was ready.

“This entire fiasco could have been avoided if they had waited to get the results of this report,” parent Kiera Jones told ARLnow today. “A ton of time, energy, and stress for nothing.”

“The process was completely out of order,” parent Malini Silva added.

Jones called on APS to “rehaul… their approach to projects and how they treat their stakeholders.”

This includes how APS treats teachers, according to parent Jennifer Loeb and June Prakash, the president of the teachers union, Arlington Education Association.

Teachers felt demoralized and angry after a meeting last month with administrators about the swing space proposal, Loeb told ARLnow. Prakash told the School Board the same thing earlier this month.

“The actions of the current cabinet over the past few weeks highlight exactly why one joins the union,” Prakash said, citing how teachers felt after the “botched informational session” about Nottingham and pending healthcare changes that roiled current and retired teachers.

Prior to the forthcoming report, the Arlington County Council of PTAs predicted APS would not have sufficient funding for the large-scale renovations that would require a swing space.

This was confirmed during the discussion of the renovations report, which found APS has funding for five large-scale projects, Jones said.

During the meeting last night, Loeb said administrators discussed how APS would not know if it truly needs a swing space until it conducts deeper studies of buildings set for renovations and contractors weigh in.

These studies take a year and would not begin until next fall, meaning APS would not know if a swing space were necessary until two years from now.

“You’re talking about work that is happening years from now, but they told Nottingham six months ago ‘It’ll be you,’ when they had none of the necessary data,” she said.

This morning, when parents were walking their kids to school, Loeb said everyone “looked relieved.”

“We can get back to being a community now. We can get back to building our school and really investing in our school community again,” she said. “We have space and breathing room to do that now.”

APS middle and high schools to beef up security, attendance with e-hall pass system

By Jo DeVoe
Demo Minga student IDs (via Minga/YouTube)

Next month, Arlington Public Schools is set to roll out a new, electronic campus management platform at a number of middle and high schools.

The goal is to improve building security and provide better oversight of students as they come and go from classrooms.

Kenmore, Dorothy Hamm, Gunston and Thomas Jefferson middle schools, as well as Wakefield, Washington-Liberty and Yorktown high schools, will adopt the app and web-based platform Minga, says APS spokesman Frank Bellavia.

The platform provides hall passes and monitors students coming in and going out of buildings to ensure that only students are in the school, Bellavia said. Schools can limit the number of students in the halls at one time and limit the number of passes per student, per day.

This comes as APS has separately upped its budget for safety and security measures, including school safety coordinators, security cameras and other technological upgrades pertaining to safety. That comes amid reports of student drug use, for which some teachers say skipping class is partly to blame, and nearly a dozen juvenile overdoses in Arlington this year.

Students can download Minga to their smartphone or use it on their laptop or tablet. The platform issues digital IDs with scannable barcodes and digital passes, which would replace physical ID cards and paper passes.

Wakefield High School Principal Peter Balas imported Minga this year from his days leading Alexandria City High School, which has had issues around violence inside and outside of the school.

“I see it as a tool to help me get better safety and security and to help things run more safely and smoothly,” he said. “My experience is that it has been… well-accepted by staff.”

Kenmore piloted an e-pass system last year and, when Balas arrived in Arlington, principals were discussing whether to adopt such a system. That is when he suggested Minga.

Minga notifies teachers of students who are out of class and can ensure certain students are not in the hallways at the same time — if they tend to break school rules when together. It tracks trends over time, such as overall time spent out of class and passes issued or students who spent the most time not in class and where they went.

Balas would like to see students scan their IDs to enter school buildings, too, so staff know who is in the building before they take attendance. He said it also can help staff track down and follow-up with students who arrive at school but ditch class or leave mid-day.

“[But] for me, one of the most important things, from safety standpoint, is that it basically would prevent anyone who doesn’t go to school from trying to get in,” Balas said.

Earlier this year, Wakefield was placed in lockdown after reports of a trespasser, possibly armed with a gun, and a threat against a student.

“Almost every period, we have comings and goings in the school,” he continued. “It will also help us keep track of all that movement and make sure access is secure and legitimate.”

When asked how this might interfere with building-level “Away for the Day” policies — in which phones are required to be off and stored during school hours — Bellavia said students can request passes from their tablets or laptops.

Balas says he does not think this will interfere with Wakefield’s mobile phone policy.

Administrators and security staff are in the first wave of training on the new system and teachers will soon follow.

“I was purposeful not wanting to inundate [teachers] when we aren’t ready to launch yet,” Balas said. “I’m hoping in the next month or so to have it fully up and running but it is something where I have to take the temperature of everyone and make sure it doesn’t overwhelm people.”

Minga will cost around $50,000 to roll out, Bellavia said.

Arlington teachers decry impending healthcare changes as a ‘catastrophe’

By Jo DeVoe
1/8

Over the course of an hour last night, Arlington Public Schools teachers excoriated the School Board and central administration for how they are handling what some call a healthcare catastrophe.

On Dec. 31, APS staff will lose the healthcare they receive from Kaiser Permanente and Cigna through APS, to be replaced in January by CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield.

Many current and retired staff say this change will upend the Kaiser healthcare teams they have built for themselves and their families over several years and in some cases, decades.

APS says it solicited bids from healthcare vendors and received four proposals, including CareFirst, the vendor it ultimately selected — but not Kaiser.

The school system first announced the change on Sept. 20 and the response was swift. Teachers spoke up at the subsequent September School Board meeting and ARLnow received at least a dozen emails from staff who were upset and confused by the change.

These feelings reached a boiling point on Thursday despite efforts from APS to smooth things over. APS held a “resource fair” with CareFirst representatives and Human Resources staff to help understand their benefits and enroll but according to the teachers union, the Arlington Education Association, this did not ease the anxiety of the nearly 400 people who showed up — some of whom were turned away.

“This disrespectful treatment of staff, lack of response and inappropriate responses from HR and lack of transparency on issues that not only affect staff but students and families, is disheartening,” says teacher Tricia Zipfel.

When teacher Marnie Lewis took the microphone at the School Board meeting, she began crying but eventually rallied to encouragement from colleagues in attendance.

“This [change] really took me to my knees,” she said. “I can’t believe I’m here. I’m here because this is how upset I am. I used to love working here, I was proud to work here and I’m not feeling that anymore… I would just like it if someone could answer my emails and questions. That would be great.”

Teacher Heidi Haretos, who recently moved from North Carolina to Arlington, asked central office and the School Board: “If your wife, daughter, husband or son had a serious health condition, and had a trusted medical team supporting them through Kaiser, would you have made this decision?”
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Anonymous commenting on new APS feedback platform divides some Arlington School Board members

By Jo DeVoe
The ThoughtExchange platform Arlington Public Schools has debuted (via APS)

Arlington Public Schools has a new internal social media platform for families but its anonymous commenting policy prompted a tense discussion among some School Board members.

This year, the school system launched ThoughtExchange, which allows people to comment on topics or proposals administrators bring to the community for public comment. Users can also rank the comments others make 1-5 stars.

ThoughtExchange is intended to be a simpler and faster alternative to answering surveys and writing emails. APS has used it to gauge reception of its proposed school calendar and its plans to turn Nottingham Elementary School into a “swing space” and relocate the Spanish immersion program from Gunston to Kenmore Middle School.

“The goal of ThoughtExchange was for us to get more comprehensive feedback from our community,” APS Director of Strategic Outreach Daryl Johnson said in a work session last week. “One of the biggest requests that we continually receive from the community is transparency, and so people are actually able to see the thoughts of others in real time.”

But the platform’s anonymous commenting function raised red flags for School Board member Reid Goldstein.

“In the 10 or 15 years that social media has been around, I have yet to hear anybody, worldwide, say, ‘Boy, this social media is the greatest thing since sliced bread,'” Goldstein said. “I’m curious as to what thought we were going to achieve by creating another social media conduit and allowing commenters to sign up anonymously.”

Johnson said APS allows anonymous feedback so people speak up without worrying their opinions will blow back in their face at, for instance, the next Parent-Teacher Association meeting.

“So yes, sometimes it may go to the other end of the spectrum where it allows someone to say something that may not be the most favorable or the most constructive feedback, but however, it allows people to actually give that honest feedback without the retaliation,” he said.

Goldstein asked Johnson if staff expect “unfavorable” comments to increase, how much time they devote to content moderation and whether the communications team will request a future full-time moderator position.

Johnson noted that staff spend significant time moderating comments and responding to those “spreading misinformation.” He said a full-time moderator is unnecessary because ThoughtExchange uses AI to flag words and notify staff and participants can also report comments.

“We also are able to comment and respond to what people are saying,” he said.

Responding to Goldstein, School Board Chair Cristina Diaz-Torres said anonymous negative comments already exist on other platforms and, with ThoughtExchange, APS at least can moderate.

“These are comments that were happening already in different venues. If you’ve seen an ARLnow comment, if you’ve seen DC Urban Moms and Dads, Arlington Education Matters, these comments have been happening,” she said.

“The reality is that these comments were being made,” she continued. “A lot of these comments are incredibly disrespectful and are incredibly unkind and are incredibly inappropriate, however, here is an area where we can in fact do that moderation, using the tools that Mr. Johnson just mentioned.”

Goldstein agreed these comments have always existed but stressed with the new platform, “we are giving a platform to them and rewarding bad behavior that we have historically…”

“We’re not, though, if we’re taking them away,” Diaz-Torres interjected.

“…historically spent too much time [rewarding],” Goldstein continued, reprising his comment.

Diaz-Torres, who added that she appreciates the ability to rank comments, concluded the discussion with a message to the community “to be kind.”

“This is a new piece of software. And yes, you can be a keyboard warrior to your heart’s content, behind your keyboard, in the privacy of your own home, but remember, that there are humans on the receiving end of this,” she said.

APS is stepping up its efforts to include students with disabilities, after years of fitful progress

By Jo DeVoe
Students at Kenmore Middle School pass a ball back and forth (courtesy of Kenmore Middle School teacher Shauna Dyer)

For the last decade, Arlington Public Schools has tried to increase the time students with disabilities spend with their typically abled peers.

Creating a more inclusive environment can benefit students with disabilities and their peers, according to some studies — though not all — as well as new APS academic data. But it is easier said than done.

As of the 2020-21 school year, 67% of students with disabilities spent 80% of their time in the general education setting. The students who make up the difference might spend more time in a small-group setting or they may be placed in county-wide programs.

The 67% figure put APS 5 percentage points below state targets that year and 13 percentage points below a goal it set in its 2018-24 strategic plan.

Progress toward this goal has been sporadic because APS lacked a concrete plan and system-wide buy in to make these changes, according to old APS reports and interviews ARLnow conducted.

“The basic punchline is that they set the goal… and then they didn’t do anything differently for the subsequent five-plus years,” says parent David Rosenblatt, the former chair of Arlington Special Education Advisory Committee. “There was no meaningful plan except goals on paper.”

There are new signs of progress, though.

This year, the Office of Special Education is working with leaders of schools with inclusion rates below 65% to develop goals around increasing inclusion and strategies to help staff with this work, according to APS spokesman Frank Bellvia.

APS is in the early stages of hiring a consultant to devise system-level changes. It issued a request for proposals this summer and is re-issuing a new one this fall.

Previous consultant reports from 2013 and 2019 said Arlington could improve its inclusion efforts but left it to the school system to change. The 2019 report gave APS low marks for its progress since 2013.

APS confirmed its 2024 goal will transfer to future strategic plans.

“Supporting our [students with disabilities] is a core value for the district, and it will take some time to achieve this goal as it involves several factors,” Bellavia said. “Some of these include building an inclusive mindset with staff and within the community, staffing needs, and master schedules at the school.”

What inclusion looks like today

For APS, the good news is that, in 2019, a majority of students receiving services for their disability said they were treated fairly, welcomed in school and able to participate in afterschool activities.

On the other hand, 30% said this was not their experience and 35% said only some or none of their teachers have high expectations for them or “that they don’t know,” per the report.

For special education attorney Juliet Hiznay, students with disabilities can benefit from the higher expectations set in general education classrooms than in separate programs.

“The rationale for [these programs] is that they need a lower ratio, fewer distractions, modified curriculum,” she says. “The problem with that is that we’re looking at supporting a programmatic model rather than taking the student and saying, ‘How do we include her? What is she capable of?’”

Separate tracks may also contribute to fewer general education teachers who receive sufficient training to teach students with disabilities. The 2019 report found only 45% of general education teachers felt equipped to teach this population.

Annually, APS reports to the state how much time students with disabilities spend in with their typically abled peers in general education classrooms, as well as at lunch, recess, study periods, libraries and field trips.

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APS, teachers and community members say work remains to tackle high suspension rates among certain students

By Jo DeVoe
Chief Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Officer Julie Crawford (via APS)

(Updated at 6:35 p.m.) Black and Hispanic students remain more likely to be suspended from Arlington Public Schools than their peers, according to new data.

Specifically, Black students make up 11% of students yet 30% of suspensions, while Hispanic students make up 30% of the population and 45% of suspensions, per a presentation to the Arlington School Board yesterday (Tuesday).

Meanwhile, students with disabilities and those learning English are also over-represented in suspension rates. APS says they are, respectively, 2.5 and 1.5 times more likely to be suspended than their counterparts.

APS has made some inroads, noting a 5-percentage point drop in suspensions of Black students, a 4-percentage point drop among students with disabilities and a 2-percentage drop among males. Suspensions rose 2 percentage points for Hispanic students and females and remain unchanged for English-language learning students.

Disproportionate suspensions along race and ethnicity, ability and sex have long existed in APS, which has recently taken steps to reduce these gaps and improve its school climate more broadly.

This includes staff training in implicit biases and the root causes of problematic student behavior as well as in how to prevent crises using de-escalation. Also, the School Board two years ago voted to remove School Resource Officers from school grounds to tackle disproportionate arrest rates among non-white students.

More recently, APS  hired six Deans of Students this school year to address student behaviors at Yorktown, Washington-Liberty and Wakefield high schools as well as three middle schools. Middle schools in particular have seen problematic student behavior, including fights and verbal threats to teachers.

Suspensions by race and ethnicity over the last four school years (via Arlington Public Schools)

Chief Diversity, Equity and Inclusion Officer Julie Crawford described to the School Board how school administrators plan to tackle suspension rates.

“We would like to continue to focus on building our alternatives to suspension at the school level,” she said, adding that the new deans work “to proactively program and build relationships using instructional time, as opposed to removing our students from the school.”

Sometimes, students have to be removed from school. APS says the top reasons for out-of-school suspensions are disruptive behavior, followed by attendance issues — such as skipping class — and drug offenses. The top two reasons for in-school suspensions are the same, followed by fighting.

Tiffany Woody-Pope, dean of students at Thomas Jefferson Middle School, emphasized the importance of good staff-student relationships.

“I think the more that we are intentional about developing our interpersonal relationships with our students, the more comfort they’ll feel in classrooms — so they won’t necessarily have to be classified as ‘disruptive behavior,'” she said.

Seeing “disruptive behavior” top charts set off alarm bells for School Board member Mary Kadera.

“Disruptive behavior gives me a little heartburn… because historically, and broadly, outside of Arlington, ‘disruptive behavior’ has been a catch-all for a wide variety of behaviors and self-expression of students that a teacher may not like,” she said.

Crawford noted it is a broad definition with any of 17 different indicators, including disrespect and defiance.

June Prakash, the president of the teachers union, Arlington Education Association, would also like to see more daylight on “disruptive behavior,” questioning whether teachers and administrators have the ability to record a more accurate, specific reason for removing a student from class.

“Believe it or not, educators will put up with a lot before sending calling for help,” she said. “Staff often don’t feel supported, as it feels like their expertise is disregarded in the building.”

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