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OpEdNews Op Eds    H3'ed 7/2/22

Why Is This School District Ignoring The Needs Of Its Most Vulnerable Students?

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"Is there anybody listening? Is there anyone that sees what's going on?" - Queensrà ¿che

With the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and its resulting shutdowns still being felt, LAUSD students with special education needs are facing yet another major crisis as access to programs these students require is being cut. This new disaster is created by the district's new Superintendent and could be ended with the direction of the Board of Education, but they would first have to understand the problem. With this in mind I made a plea on behalf of the district's most vulnerable students at the start of the board's closed session meeting last Tuesday:

In evaluating the Superintendent's performance, it is important to look at how his stewardship of the district has affected not only students on the academic track, but also our most vulnerable children. All students deserve a chance to reach their full potential, including those whose education falls under the label of "special." Those whose path does not include college deserve the same respect as those who can and want to pursue higher education.

As the Superintendent made his rounds of graduations during the last weeks of the school year, I hope he made the time to visit schools that exclusively serve those requiring special education services. Not only did these young adults deserve the Superintendent's attention just as much as their typical peers but they had a lot to teach him.

In a recent report on KCBS, the district told the reporter that special education classrooms are being closed next year because of "low enrollment," but we all know that this is a half-truth. The fact is that this lack of demand has been manufactured by the district. The LAUSD is preventing parents from choosing self-contained special education classrooms during their IEPs and forcing these students into general education settings in the name of "inclusion."

While inclusion in a general education setting is a worthwhile goal for students for whom it is appropriate, there are students who will thrive instead in a setting that is specially tailored to their needs. The Superintendent should go and see the results in these classrooms firsthand and stop using these students to conduct a social experiment. Why are these parents being deprived of choice when they know what works best for their children?

I recently had a conversation with a mother who is fighting hard to keep her child in a program that is working for her. She cried as she told me about the gains her daughter has made in the Aut Core program in middle school but how no high schools are offering an equivalent program next year. Why are they pushing this child into a general education setting when her parents and her teachers know that it is not appropriate? I thought that we were supposed to be phasing out this top-down decision-making by Beaudry Bureaucrats.

No students have suffered more during the COVID crisis than those with special education needs. Many saw a return of negative behaviors. Others saw a loss of academic achievement. The district is admitting to these issues and offering compensatory services during IEPs. Why are we then going to compound this trauma by taking them out of programs that are working for them? Why are we going to remove teachers who have spent a career learning about children's special needs and finding ways to serve them?

From accounts I am hearing about, the Superintendent is failing our most vulnerable students. He needs to leave his office and his guided tours and meet these children and their families. These are the experts who can show him what these students really need in order to succeed.


(Image by LAUSD)   Details   DMCA
Unfortunately, my plea fell on deaf ears. Instead of listening to what I had to say, Board President Kelly Gonez and the Superintendent conducted their own private conversation. Board Member Monica Garcia spoke to George McKenna through the first portion of my speech and then they both got up to attend to other tasks while I was speaking. As I related a story about a parent who was driven to tears by the district's actions, Nick Melvoin and Tanya Ortiz-Franklin laughed amongst themselves.

Of the six board members on the dais, only Scott Schmerelson bothered to listen to what I had to say. However, he never admonished his peers or the Superintendent, whom he is supposed to supervise. Nor did he acknowledge the serious issues that were brought up in my speech, let alone promise to address them when the board conducted their evaluation of the Superintendent behind closed doors.

Gonez's unexpectedly poor showing in the primary election that was held earlier this month means that she will face a runoff in November. Instead of taking the electorate's warning, her performance on Tuesday shows that she intends on continuing to ignore the parents of the district and do everything possible to keep them from having input. This is a perplexing path to pursue when her opponent, Marvin Rodriguez, has expressed a great understanding of the needs of children who are receiving special education services and has pledged to encourage parent engagement in the district.


Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for students with special education needs and public education. He was elected to the Northridge East Neighborhood Council and is the Education Chair. As a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race, he was endorsed by Network for Public Education (NPE) Action. Dr. Diane Ravitch has called him "a valiant fighter for public schools in Los Angeles." For links to his blogs, please visit www.ChangeTheLAUSD.com. Opinions are his own.

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Carl Petersen is a parent, an advocate for students with special education needs, an elected member of the Northridge East Neighborhood Council, a member of the LAUSD's CAC, and was a Green Party candidate in LAUSD's District 2 School Board race. During the campaign, the Network for Public Education (NPE) Action endorsed him, and Dr. Diane Ravitch called him a " (more...)
 

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