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Board approves COMAR regulatory actions: IEP eligibility timing clarified; other regulatory items cleared for adoption or publication
Summary
The committee approved permission to publish changes to IEP team responsibilities to limit alternate-assessment eligibility until the annual review immediately preceding third grade and approved other COMAR actions including adopting interstate-compact recognition for therapists and publishing new LEA compliance attestation language for background-check rules.
The Education Policy Committee considered multiple regulatory items and voted on changes to COMAR and new local compliance requirements.
Molly Connor, director of performance support and technical assistance, presented proposed COMAR 13A.05.01.08 revisions to restrict eligibility for the alternate academic achievement standards to students with the most significant cognitive disabilities and to delay consideration of eligibility until the annual review immediately preceding a student's third-grade year. Connor said MSDE found that "Currently, nearly 1,400 students in Maryland have been deemed as eligible for an assessment that they are not permitted to take," and argued the proposed change, combined with clearer definitions in COMAR appendix guidance, would reduce premature assignment to alternate assessments and reduce inappropriate segregation.
Board members pressed for precise language on "most significant cognitive disability" and for clarification of IEP timing to avoid creating the need for extra IEP meetings; MSDE said it will add explicit language and rely on appendix guidance that walks teams through determinations.
The committee voted to grant permission to publish the COMAR language for public comment.
Assistant State Superintendent Kelly Meadows presented two additional items: a small amendment to COMAR 13A.12.04.10 to allow therapists licensed through interstate compacts to work in Maryland schools (permission to adopt), and a new regulation (COMAR 13A.07.14.07) responding to an Office of Legislative Audits recommendation requiring annual LEA attestation of compliance with child sexual abuse and sexual misconduct hiring rules and a limited LEA review of recent hires (to be submitted to the State Board) by July 1, 2027. The committee moved and passed both items (permission to adopt for the therapists regulation and permission to publish for the child sexual-abuse compliance requirement).
Votes and immediate effects: The committee approved MSDE's permission-to-publish request for the IEP/alternate-assessment COMAR language, adopted the interstate-compact recognition for therapists, and approved publishing the child sexual-abuse/local-compliance regulation for public comment. MSDE said it will publish materials, finalize language, and provide accompanying guidance for LEAs to implement the changes.
What happens next: MSDE will publish the IEP COMAR changes and receive public comment, refine definitions in the regulatory text and appendix as requested by board members, publish the interstate-compact amendment and its guidance, and collect LEA attestations and review reports as outlined for the 2027 deadline.
