DCPS SpEd Research — Reference Index

External research compiled 2026-05-10 to support IEP-writing guidance and situational awareness. Generated via 6 parallel research agents + targeted unified-RAG searches + local PDFs of authoritative OSSE bulletins. Companion to the procedure docs in the parent directory (../), which capture Shannon Flaherty's email-based operational guidance.

What's here

Doc	Use when you need...
dcps-osse-regulatory-stack.md	What the actual binding DC special-ed regulations say. 5-A DCMR Chapter 30, the OSSE Process Handbook SY25-26, and verbatim excerpts of the 4 most-relevant OSSE policy bulletins. Cite this when you need DC-specific authority.
dcps-context-and-risks-2026.md	Situational awareness about the legal/political environment. OCR's March 2026 discrimination finding, DL Child Find injunction, Robertson transportation suit, OSEP's 15-year "Specific Conditions" status, USCCR report, and what these mean for case-manager-level practice.
iep-writing-best-practices.md	Best practices for the craft of IEP writing — PLAAFP, measurable goals, SDI, accommodations vs modifications, LRE, service hours, progress monitoring, writing for parents, bilingual SpEd, early-elementary goals. Anchored in IRIS Center, PROGRESS Center, CPIR, OSEP, WIDA.
pwn-drafting-guide.md	Federal PWN requirements (34 CFR §300.503), seven required elements, common compliance errors, scenario-by-scenario guidance (declined ESY, comp services, placement/service changes, eligibility, graduation, refusal to evaluate, proceeding without parent), DCPS language-access rules.
local-resources.md	What you already own. Bancroft folder of IEP-writing PDFs, your goals bank, the SpEd textbooks already in unified RAG, and how to query them.
source-pdfs/	The actual OSSE PDFs (and parsed `.txt` versions) — Process Handbook, ESY Bulletin, Initial Eval Bulletin, Strengthening Connections Guidance, 5-A DCMR Chapter 30 full text. Use as source-of-truth when our summary docs need verification.

How these were generated

6 parallel research agents (Sonnet) covering: DCPS/OSSE regulatory documentation, IEP-writing best practices, PWN drafting scenarios, DCPS legal challenges past 10 years, DCPS comparative performance vs peers, DCPS shortcomings per independent watchdogs.
Unified RAG searches across search_teaching + search_courses + search_library for IEP goals, PLAAFP, PWN compliance, ESY, DCPS-specific procedures, Endrew F., FAPE, ELL+SpEd intersection, evidence-based intervention.
Local OSSE PDFs downloaded + parsed via pdftotext: Process Handbook SY25-26 (1.7MB / 2,173 lines), ESY Bulletin Aug 2023 (110 lines), Initial Eval Bulletin Oct 2024 (163 lines), Strengthening Connections July 2025 (105 lines), 5-A DCMR Chapter 30 full text (314KB / 6,110 lines).

To refresh:

cd source-pdfs
for f in *.pdf; do pdftotext -layout "$f" "${f%.pdf}.txt"; done

Caveats

Each doc lists its primary sources + dates. Re-confirm anything older than ~2 years before relying on it for a compliance-critical decision.
The OCR finding (March 2026) is the most current binding context — DCPS had not accepted the proposed resolution agreement as of the research cut-off date.
"Comparative performance" data has known gaps: many disaggregated DCPS metrics live behind OSSE's portal and aren't in public summary reports. We've flagged stale data points (>3 yrs) explicitly.
Spanish-immersion / bilingual SpEd is your specific context — bilingual SpEd is one of the LEAST well-documented areas in DCPS-specific literature. Lean on WIDA + Colorín Colorado for craft and local case knowledge for fit.

How to use this with the procedure docs

The procedure docs in ../ (e.g., esy-pwn-decline.md) are operationally focused — they tell you what Shannon wants. The research docs here are reference-focused — they tell you why (the law, the literature, the current political environment, the patterns).

When in doubt: the procedure doc is the operational answer, the research doc is the legal/professional backing.