USVI lawmakers press agencies on special-education backlog, staffing and funding

St. Thomas, U.S. Virgin Islands — Lawmakers at a May 9 Committee on Education and Workforce Development hearing pressed territorial agencies and private providers for immediate fixes to a territory‑wide backlog of special‑education evaluations, rising contractor costs and persistent shortages of school psychologists, speech‑language pathologists and related service providers.

Commissioner Dion Wells Hedrington of the Virgin Islands Department of Education told the committee the state office and the two district offices face “limited funding, shortages of specialized staff such as school psychologists, speech and language pathologists, and special education teachers,” and infrastructure challenges that impede on‑time delivery of federally required services. “Education is not just a pathway to opportunity. It is a foundation,” he said in testimony to the 36th Legislature’s committee.

Why this matters: federal law (the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act, IDEA) and Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act require timely evaluation, Individualized Education Programs (IEPs) and related services for children with disabilities. Witnesses told senators that long evaluation waits, unpaid vendor invoices and insufficient staffing are delaying required services, risking students’ short‑ and long‑term academic progress and exposing the territory to enforcement action tied to a court‑ordered consent decree.

What agencies reported

Department of Education: The department outlined a multi‑factor problem. District officials said a combination of hurricanes, COVID‑19 disruptions, leadership turnover and a national shortage of school psychologists produced long evaluation queues — the St. Croix district reported roughly 250 pending evaluations (a mix of initial and re‑evaluations) and St. Thomas reported about 180 pending re‑evaluations plus about 80 new referrals. The department said it has run summer accelerated evaluation programs and is contracting outside providers to reduce the backlog.

The department also told senators it shifted dozens of positions from federal to local payroll after federal funding priorities changed. Commissioner Hedrington said 41 employees were moved to the local budget, increasing personnel costs by about $2.7 million and creating a local shortfall; the department said it remains short about $1.7 million in personnel and roughly $3.6 million in purchased services for the current year.

University of the Virgin Islands and training pipeline: UVI leaders said the university is expanding local training to build a “grow‑your‑own” pipeline. UVI Dean Karen H. Brown and UVI Center for Excellence programs described a specialist degree in school psychology funded in part with ARP (American…