Frederick County Public Schools hope to update their special needs information portal to better recognize students with Dyslexia, Dysgraphia, and Dyscalculia by the end of the month.

The conditions, known as the 3 D’s, affect a person's ability to read, write and understand numbers, respectively.

Board of Education Vice President Dean Rose noted the 3 D’s were included within the information portal, but acknowledged they had been improperly lumped together into another category. “It wasn’t respectful to those families who had worked so hard to gain the recognition of the 3 D’s,” Rose said.

Dr. Jennifer Bingman, Associate Superintendent of Special Education, said the process, which included reviewing a 92 page document, was slowing down the update’s release. Additionally, she pointed out that IEPs made between the time the system was launched and the eventual update would need to be updated as well. “We want to make sure it’s done right,” Bingman explained. “We have to be able to look at it and say, ‘yes, that’s how we want it,’ because we don’t want them to put anything in there and then it not be what we need it to be.”

New System

A need for updates to Frederick County Public Schools’ online IEP portal was revealed in 2023 by a special education audit.

An IEP is an individual education plan which parents of special needs students can create with FCPS special educators. IEPs include the special plans in place to help foster a special needs student's education, as well as notes from the parent and a list of accommodations provided to the student.

FCPS chose the EdPlanMD platform in 2024 and introduced it at the beginning of this school year. More than 1,000 staff were trained on the new system in August and a troubleshooting system was put in place for educators who needed further assistance. Families have been able to translate more than 1,300 files into 25 different languages offered by the system.

Parent Concerns

The FCPS is in the process of transferring the last three years worth of documentation on special needs students to the new system. Bingman noted some parents were worried about what would happen to older documents and clarified that those files will still be kept by the school. “We will always be able to go into the Maryland online IEP system and have all of that historical background available,” Bingman said.

For some parents who are learning to care for a special needs child for the first time, learning how to advocate for their own child can be a challenge. Bingman noted the new system is intended to create more transparency for families.

Now, meetings are recorded, and a copy can be provided to the family if desired. Additionally, families can provide further documentation to the school to be added to the system later. Notably, parents with multiple special needs children can sort through their files by child and by year.

Bingman explained this effort was to make sure information about a child’s special education plan was easily transferable. “The IEP should be able to be taken to another school where they can pick it up and read it and understand exactly what the parental input is,” Bingman explained. “In addition, it outlines all the pieces of the specially designed instruction for the student.”

Public meetings are planned for after winter break, so that families can give their input on future updates to the system.