The Barre City Elementary and Middle School seen on August 8, 2023. File photo by Glenn Russell/VTDiggerAt least three school districts are warning parents that due to a lack of staff, their children may not receive the special education services they’re legally entitled to receive. The Barre Unified Union School District, South Burlington School District and Lamoille North Supervisory Union preemptively alerted parents in form letters to expect the services in their kids’ individualized education programs, or IEPs, might not be provided.Anastasia Douglas, a Barre town parent, received a letter from the district the day before school was set to start. “The communication wasn’t in good faith because it was sent immediately before the school year started,” she said. Douglas’s son would not be receiving the paraeducator support laid out in his IEP. Federal law requires that public schools provide a free and appropriate public education. Individualized education programs are legally binding documents that include the services a district will provide to a student based on that student’s unique needs. Exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic, staffing woes have negatively affected the delivery of special education in many Vermont school districts. In the most extreme cases, lack of appropriate staff leads some Vermont students to receive no education at all. For Douglas, the school district not providing the services included in her kid’s IEP has far reaching consequences.“This is harmful to everyone, the kids and the teachers,” she said. Without more individualized assistance, classroom teachers are forced to step into roles typically delegated to others, according to Douglas, taking away from all students’ instruction. The letter Douglas received was penned by the district’s Director of Special Services, Dr. Melody Frank. “As you may be aware, Vermont schools continue to experience severe staffing shortages and our district is no exception,” Frank wrote. “This shortage will affect the staffing of your child’s IEP. I recognize that shortages do not absolve the district of its legal obligations to provide a Free and Appropriate Public Education to your child.”Frank said the district would keep track of the days when a student’s IEP was not staffed, adding that “if and when appropriate staffing is finally obtained, your case manager will convene an IEP meeting to consider the provision of compensatory services to address any impacts on educational progress resulting from the shortfall.”In an interview, JoAn Canning, Barre’s superintendent, acknowledged the letter’s timing was “not ideal,” but said the district wanted to air on the side of “transparency.”“This is not an easy thing to do,” she said of sending the letters. “I’m just hoping we can continue to find ways to attract (employees) to the field.”Canning said she was aware of other districts sending similar notices, and said Barre had received “some advice” on crafting letters, but declined to specify who provided that advice.She estimated the letter had gone out initially to about 30 families but noted that staffing issues were already affecting fewer students.Douglas, the Barre town parent, said her son thrives when given appropriate support. But already this year, she’s seen the detrimental effects of not receiving those services.“On the second day of school, my son sat in his bedroom closet for two hours, which I directly attribute to him not having someone to help him regulate during the day,” she said. “He’s never done that before.”While Douglas said the district is home to “great teachers” and “great staff,” she found the staffing excuse unacceptable. She’s now pursuing mediation with the district.Jasmine Wible, another Barre town parent, has four kids with autism. Now, after receiving the district’s letter, she’s decided to homeschool her children.“I do not want them to lose out on an education because they’re all brilliant,” Wible said in an interview. “They should be able to go to school just like any peer.”Like Douglas, Wible was blindsided by the last minute communication from the district. While she’s had some challenges working with the district previously, her kids had also had “amazing educators” with whom they thrived in the classroom.But Wible argued a staffing shortage is no excuse for not providing the education her kids are legally obligated to receive.“When you’re having significant staffing issues year after year after year, you have to think outside the box,” she said.Canning, the superintendent, said the district is “looking to partner with parents to figure out if there are any creative solutions we haven’t thought about.”Wible, meanwhile, has taken her kids’ education into her own hands. When her oldest son was diagnosed with autism about eight years ago, she quit her job. She imagined she’d return to the workforce once her youngest child went to school. That’s no longer the plan.“When you have a child with disabilities, you have to provide an extreme level of support,” Wible said,VTDigger also obtained a similar letter sent out to at least one family in the South Burlington School District, written by Kristin Romick, the district’s executive director of educational support systems.In the Sept. 20 letter, Romick wrote that “SBSD is currently facing staffing shortages that are affecting our ability to support some of our most educationally vulnerable students.” “We acknowledge that all students are entitled to a Free Appropriate Public Education (FAPE),” she wrote, “However, staffing shortages may negatively impact our ability to provide, in whole or in part, the services guaranteed by your child’s IEP.”Romick noted that the shortages do not lessen the district’s “obligation” to deliver “required services.”South Burlington district leadership did not respond to questions emailed on Tuesday. This summer, VTDigger detailed the struggles a South Burlington family encountered in getting an appropriate education for their son, Noah, who has autism. Cammie Naylor, a staff attorney at Vermont Legal Aid who helps families navigate special education law, told VTDigger she had also seen a similar letter shared by the Lamoille North Supervisory Union regarding staffing at the Eden Central School. While Naylor said she’s aware of letters of this kind going out elsewhere in the country, this is the first time she’s encountered them in Vermont.“We’re taking our time in looking at them,” she said of Legal Aid. “We are certainly concerned about youth and children who are not receiving their services.”According to Naylor, under the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, the inability to provide services does not generally alleviate a school district’s responsibility to provide a free and appropriate public education.Still, Naylor called the situation “complicated.” Even legal complaints do not necessarily fix a staffing problem.“We have known for some time — we being the whole state — that education staffing is at a crisis level,” she said. Read the story on VTDigger here: At least 3 Vermont school districts warn parents that lack of staff will prevent adequate special education services.