ADA Accommodation Requests:
According to Title I of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA), employees with documented disabilities may request reasonable accommodations within their workplace for a variety of reasons. According to the U.S. Department of Labor, Office of Disability Employment Policy, a reasonable accommodation is "a modification or adjustment to a job, the work environment, or the way things are usually done during the hiring process.”  The ADA requires reasonable accommodations as they relate to three aspects of employment:

1. ensuring equal opportunity in the application process;
2. enabling a qualified individual with a disability to perform the essential functions of a job; and
3. making it possible for an employee with a disability to enjoy equal benefits and privileges of employment.
    

Procedures:
Any Amherst County Public Schools (ACPS) employee who wishes to pursue reasonable accommodations under the ADA for any of the identified permissible areas noted above, please complete the form below and submit it to the ADA Coordinator via email at jgallagher@amherst.k12.va.us. The ACPS ADA Coordinators will review your request for accommodations and will contact you directly to arrange a time to discuss and consider your request.

Title 1 of the ADA ACPS Compliance Officers
Employment – Mr. Jim Gallagher, Chief Human Resources Officer
Facilities – Dr. Tim Hoden, Chief Operations Officer
P.O. Box 1257
Amherst, VA 24521
434-946-9386

Current copies of all division policies and regulations are available from the division’s website on Board Docs. Printed copies of school division policies and regulations are available to citizens who do not have online access.  Va. Code § 22.1-253.13:7.E.

The Amherst County School Board is an equal opportunity employer, committed to nondiscrimination in recruitment, selection, hiring, pay, promotion, retention, and other personnel actions affecting employees or candidates for employment. Therefore, discrimination in employment against any person in any protected class under federal or state law is prohibited, including without limitation those classes protected under Title II, Title VI, Title VII, Title IX, and Section 504. Personnel decisions are based on merit and the ability to perform the essential functions of the job, with or without reasonable accommodation.

Mr. Jim Gallagher, Chief Human Resources Officer, Title IX Coordinator, is designated as the Compliance Officer responsible for assurances of non-discrimination in all areas except Section 504.  Mr. Gallagher may be reached at the following address: PO Box 1257, Amherst, VA 24521, telephone number (434) 946-9376 and email jgallagher@amherst.k12.va.us.

Mr. Joshua Neighbors, Director of Student Services, is designated as the Compliance Officer responsible for Section 504. He may be reached at the following address: PO Box 1257, Amherst, VA 24521, telephone number (434) 946-9386 and email jneighbors@amherst.k12.va.us.

The Amherst County School Board provides facilities, programs and activities that are accessible, usable and available to qualified persons with disabilities.  Further, the Amherst County School Board does not discriminate against qualified persons with disabilities in the provision of health, welfare and other social services. Mr. Jim Gallagher (jgallagher@amherst.k12.va.us) and Dr. Tim Hoden (thoden@amherst.k12.va.us) serve as the ADA Coordinators for the division. Refer to Policy GB. The school system is committed to providing a workplace which reflects the diversity of our county and the children we serve. We are dedicated to equality of opportunity.

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) affords parents and students over 18 years of age ("eligible students") certain rights with respect to the student's education records. These rights are: 

1. The right to inspect and review the student's education records within 45 days of the day the School receives a request for access.
2. The right to request the amendment of the student's education records that the parent or eligible student believes are inaccurate. Parents or eligible students may ask the School to amend a record they believe is inaccurate. They should write the School principal (or appropriate school official), clearly identify the part of the record they want changed, and specify why it is inaccurate. If the School decides not to amend the record as requested by the parent or eligible student, the School will notify the parent or eligible student of the decision and advise them of their right to a hearing regarding the request for amendment. Additional information regarding the hearing procedures will be provided to the parent or eligible student when notified of the right to a hearing. 
3. The right to consent to disclosures of personally identifiable information contained in the student's education records, except to the extent that FERPA authorizes disclosure without consent.  
   • One exception, which permits disclosure without consent, is disclosure to school officials with legitimate educational interests. A school official is a person employed by the School as an administrator, supervisor, instructor, or staff member (including health or medical staff and law enforcement unit personnel); a person serving on the School Board; a person or company with whom the School has contracted to perform a special task (such as an attorney, auditor, medical consultant, or therapist); or a parent or student serving on an official committee, such as a disciplinary or grievance committee, or assisting another school official in performing his or her tasks. 
   • A school official has a legitimate educational interest if the official needs to review an education record in order to fulfill his or her professional responsibility. 
   • (Optional) Upon request, the School discloses education records without consent to officials of another school district in which a student seeks or intends to enroll. (NOTE: FERPA requires a school district to make a reasonable attempt to notify the parent or student of the records request unless it states in its annual notification that it intends to forward records on request.)
4. The right to file a complaint with the U.S. Department of Education concerning alleged failures by the School District to comply with the requirements of FERPA. The name and address of the Office that administers FERPA are: Family Policy Compliance Office  U.S. Department of Education 400 Maryland Avenue, SW Washington, DC 20202-4605 

The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA), a Federal law, requires that Amherst County Public Schools (ACPS), with certain exceptions, obtain your written consent prior to the disclosure of personally identifiable information from your child's education records. However,  ACPS  may disclose appropriately designated "directory information" without written consent, unless you have advised the school division to the contrary in accordance with school division procedures. The primary purpose of directory information is to allow ACPS to include this type of information from your child's education records in certain school publications. Examples include:

• A playbill, showing your student's role in a drama production;
• The annual yearbook;
• Honor roll or other recognition lists;
• Graduation programs; and
• Sports activity sheets, such as for wrestling, showing weight and height of team members.

Directory information, which is information that is generally not considered harmful or an invasion of privacy if released, can also be disclosed to outside organizations without a parent's prior written consent. Outside organizations include, but are not limited to, companies that manufacture class rings or publish yearbooks. In addition, two federal laws require local educational agencies (LEAs) receiving assistance under the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965 (ESEA) to provide military recruiters, upon request, with the following information – names, addresses and telephone listings – unless parents have advised the LEA that they do not want their student's information disclosed without their prior written consent*.

If you do not want ACPS to disclose directory information from your child's education records without your prior written consent, you must notify the supervisor of Technology in writing within fifteen (15) days of receiving this notice. ACPS has designated the following information as directory information (Note: an LEA may, but does not have to, include all the information listed below.):

• Student's name
• Names of student’s parents or guardians
• Address
• Telephone listing
• Electronic mail address
• Photograph
• Date and place of birth
• Major field of study
• Dates of attendance
• Grade level
• Participation in officially recognized activities and sports
• Weight and height of members of athletic teams
• Degrees, honors, and awards received
• The most recent educational agency or institution attended
• Classroom assignments and teachers

*These laws are Section 9528 of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act (20 U.S.C. § 7908), as amended by the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001 (P.L. 107110), the educational bill, and 10 U.S.C. § 503©, as amended by section 544, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2002 (P.L. 107-07), the legislation that provides funding for the Nation’s armed forces.

The following is intended to explain our current Internet privacy practices but shall not be construed as a contractual promise.  We reserve the right to amend our Internet Privacy Policy Statement at any time without notice.

Amherst County Public Schools maintains a public website to keep the community informed and engaged in our mission to provide a quality education to all students and to support the whole child. Your privacy is important to us.  Any data collected is used for the sole purpose of serving our community and providing a valuable experience. The division will only retain data for as long as necessary and for the purposes specified. We will never disclose, share, or sell your data to another party unless required to do so by law.

We protect our records in accordance with our obligations as defined by applicable Virginia statutes, including, but not limited to, Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act and the Virginia Freedom of Information Act and by any applicable federal laws.  The Amherst Public School Board does not collect unnecessary personal information by means of its website, and collects only appropriate information to the extent necessary to serve its constituents and the community.

No personal information is automatically collected from users of this website. There may be times when users of this website may voluntarily submit information to the school division when responding to a poll or survey, applying for a job, completing a user-initiated form submittal, or otherwise use the website to contact us with a question, comment, or request.

Website hosting servers may collect communication protocol addresses from the personal computers accessing the website in order to facilitate communication and usability of the site. They may also collect analytic data such as date, time and duration of site visit, type and version of operating system and browser, clicks per link, visits per page, etc.

Title IX, Part A of the Every Student Succeeds Act defines homelessness as living in the following places due to a lack of a fixed, regular, and adequate nighttime residence.

• In an emergency or transitional shelter
• In a motel, hotel, or campground due to lack of an adequate alternative 
• In a car, park, public place, bus or train station, or abandoned building
• Doubled up with relatives or friends due to loss of housing, economic hardship, or a similar reason
• In the above conditions and is a migratory child or youth
• Further descriptions of nighttime residence

This definition of homelessness applies to children and youth with:

• Uncertain housing
• A temporary address
• No permanent physical address

Children and youth living in these settings meet criteria for the McKinney-Vento definition of homelessness and have special educational rights. Contact the ACPS homeless liaison for assistance: David Smith, Supervisor of Intervention and Behavioral Services at (434) 528-6845, ext. 33102 or by email.

Contact Me by Email

What families and youth experiencing homelessness need to know: 

• Children and youth experiencing homelessness have a right to attend school.
• You do not need a permanent address to enroll your child in school.
• Some unaccompanied youth may need to change where they stay frequently. Transportation services to and from school may be available. 
• Children and youth experiencing homelessness can stay in their original school or enroll in any public school that students living in the same attendance area are eligible to attend, according to their best interest. Schools must provide you with a written explanation if a placement dispute occurs, and you may appeal their decision. (Contact the homeless liaison.)
• Your child cannot be denied school enrollment just because school records or other enrollment documentation are not immediately available. Your child may have the right to transportation services to and from the school of origin, if determined feasible.
• Your child has the right to participate in extracurricular activities and all federal, state, or local programs for which he or she is eligible. Transportation may not be available for these activities.
• Homeless, unaccompanied youth have these same rights.
• Additional information and resources are available on the Project Hope Virginia website.

The Amherst County School Board is committed to complying with the Government Data Collection and Dissemination Practices Act. The Amherst County School Board does not collect unnecessary personal information by means of its website, and collects only appropriate personal information to the extent necessary to serve its constituents and the community.        

• Routing information: the Internet domain and Internet address of the computer you are using.
• Essential technical information: identification of the page or service you are requesting, type of browser and operating system you are using and the date and time of access.
• Nonessential technical information: the Internet address of the website from which you linked directly to our website, 
• Optional information: when you send us an e-mail, your name, e-mail address, and the content of your e-mail, and/or when you fill out online forms, all the data you choose to fill in or confirm.

The following information is collected automatically by accessing the website: 

• Routing information is used to route the requested web page to your computer for viewing. We send the requested web page and the routing information to our Internet Service Provider (ISP) or other entities involved in transmitting the requested page to you.  We do not control the privacy practices of those entities. Essential and nonessential technical information helps us respond to your request in an appropriate format, or in a personalized manner and helps us plan website improvement.
• Optional information enables us to provide services or information tailored more specifically to your needs or to forward your message or inquiry to another entity that is better able to do so, and also allows us to plan website improvements.
• We may keep your information indefinitely, but we ordinarily delete the routing information from our computer within days after the web page is transmitted and do not try to obtain any information to link it to the individuals who browse our website. We use this routing information primarily in a statistical summary type format to assess site content and server performance. We may share this summary information with our business partners when needed.
• However, on rare occasions when a “hacker” attempts to breach computer security, logs of routing information are retained to permit a security investigation and in such cases may be forwarded together with any other relevant information in our possession to the appropriate law enforcement agency.
• Optional information is retained in accordance with the Records Retention Schedules promulgated by the Library of Virginia.
• Under the Freedom of Information Act, any records in our possession at the time of a request for information, including the collection of logs and data of a website, may be subject to being inspected by or disclosed to members of the public for any purpose.

Our website does not place any "cookies" on your computer.

All Amherst County Public Schools employees are required to complete mandatory training regarding Title IX and Prohibition Against Harassment and Retaliation.  If you have any questions regarding Title IX, please contact the Human Resources Office at (434) 946-9376.

In accordance with federal civil rights law and U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) civil rights regulations and policies, this institution is prohibited from discriminating on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex (including gender identity and sexual orientation), disability, age, or reprisal or retaliation for prior civil rights activity.

Program information may be made available in languages other than English. Persons with disabilities who require alternative means of communication to obtain program information (e.g., Braille, large print, audiotape, American Sign Language), should contact the responsible state or local agency that administers the program or USDA’s TARGET Center at (202) 720-2600 (voice and TTY) or contact USDA through the Federal Relay Service at (800) 877-8339.

To file a program discrimination complaint, a Complainant should complete a Form AD-3027.  To obtain a copy of a the form:

• Use this link to obtain an online USDA Program Discrimination Complaint Form, 
• Obtain a form from from any USDA office,
• Call (866) 632-9992, or
• Write a letter addressed to USDA.

The letter must contain the complainant’s name, address, telephone number, and a written description of the alleged discriminatory action in sufficient detail to inform the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights (ASCR) about the nature and date of an alleged civil rights violation. The completed AD-3027 form or letter must be submitted to USDA by:

• mail: U.S. Department of Agriculture Office of the Assistant Secretary for Civil Rights, 1400 Independence Avenue, SW, Washington, D.C. 20250-9410; or
• fax: (833) 256-1665 or (202) 690-7442; or
• email: program.intake@usda.gov

This institution is an equal opportunity provider.