CPAC highlights progress and persistent burdens for families; survey finds 96% paid for private evaluations

Elizabeth McCarter, co‑chair of Arlington’s Special Education Parent Advisory Council (CPAC), presented the group’s biannual update, praising community engagement around the successful override and noting membership growth and stronger two‑way communication with district leaders.

McCarter said CPAC is broadening its view of learners to include students with diagnosed and undiagnosed learning differences and emphasized the group’s focus on progress for individual students. She highlighted a key survey finding: "96% of those who responded to the survey said they had paid for private evaluations of their child in addition to the evaluations that were provided by the school." The CPAC framed that as evidence of a financial burden that can prevent some families from accessing necessary supports.

The presentation also noted positive signs: increased prioritization of special-education experience in building leadership hires, MTSS and universal-design-for-learning implementation, and parent‑school listening sessions. CPAC urged continued work to connect grassroots innovations to district policy ("grasstops") and called for closer collaboration with the multilingual parent advisory council and Welcome Center for translation and outreach.

During Q&A, committee members and district staff discussed translation/interpretation resources, the limits of CPAC’s volunteer capacity to translate materials, and ways to support one‑on‑one outreach to families with language barriers. McCarter said CPAC could add survey questions about multilingual status in future rounds to better disaggregate responses.

No formal committee action was taken; members asked staff to consider translation supports and to coordinate further with CPAC and MLPAC.