School District Tries To Silence The Voices Of SpEd Parents

“I do share the concern of several of the officers that we are being told what to do, and specifically what not to do; and at the last minute, especially. [This is] highly unusual.”

– CAC Parliamentarian, Paul Robak

The California Education Code requires that school districts establish three committees; the Parent Advisory Committee (PAC), the District English Learner Advisory Committee (DELAC), and the Community Advisory Committee (CAC). The role of these committees is to provide feedback to the districts about their respective subject areas. For the CAC, this includes “the annual priorities addressed in the SELPA” (Special Education Local Plan Area) local plan. Importantly, this committee is also charged with advocating “for effective Special Education programs and services.”

The newly renamed Office of Student, Family, and Community Engagement (SFAC) is responsible for facilitating all three of these committees for the LAUSD. In doing so this office has to tread a fine line between ensuring that these panels represent and “provide an authentic parent voice[s]” while keeping their bosses at the top of the bureaucracy happy.

One of the responsibilities of SFAC is to ensure that the committees conform to the Greene Act, a law that California has to ensure that public agencies operate in full view of the public. It is, therefore, surprising that at the behest of the District’s Office of General Council and the Division of Special Education, the SFAC organized a last-minute meeting of the CAC’s Executive Committee. In violation of The Greene Act, this meeting was not open to the public, a notice was not published at least 72 hours in advance and an agenda was not made available.

The purpose of this private meeting was to remove a reading of the proposed “Improving Special Education Within the LAUSD” resolution from the agenda that had been approved weeks before by the Executive Committee. This was a subject deemed so important by the LAUSD Bureaucracy that Dr. Maribel Luna, the Senior Director of the Division of Special Education, was in attendance. The move to remove the agenda item was based on a decision of the Office of General Counsel (OGC) that it did not belong in the announcements section of the agenda as the resolution had nothing to do with the SELPA. Apparently, the responsibility to advocate “for effective Special Education programs and services” was ignored by the District’s lawyers.

With the permission of the Committee’s Chair, John Perron, the time limit for public comments was extended so that Emiliana Dore, a parent of a child with special education needs, could read the resolution into the record. The co-founder of Parents Supporting Teachers, Nicolle Fefferman, and education activist Tracy Cook also spoke in support of the resolution and questioned the LAUSD’s actions in changing the agenda. My wife, Nicole Petersen, also provided her call to action for the committee:

These are difficult times for families who have children with special education needs, especially for those whose challenges are severe:

• For some parents, successful programs like Aut-core are being eliminated.

• Parents are being told during IEP meetings that special education centers are not being offered as a choice, even if this type of environment is best suited for their child’s needs.

• Special Education services are not being delivered due to severe staffing shortages.

Inspired by the fight to get my daughters the services that they needed, our family has advocated on behalf of our district’s most vulnerable children for almost ten years. Even though our children aged out of the LAUSD last year, we have continued this fight and ask for your help.

The proposed “Improving Special Education Within the LAUSD” resolution seeks to address problems that are shared by parents throughout the district. If passed by the LAUSD school board, this resolution would make changes to the policies that govern how special education services are delivered in the district:

• Special Day Classes and other specialized classrooms would be protected and fully funded.

• Special Education Centers would remain an option for children with severe needs.

• A magnet program would be established for children who are interested in pursuing careers in special education. This would help to meet the goal of inclusion by bringing general education students into the special education environment instead of forcing children with disabilities to adapt to general education campuses and classrooms.

For the full text of this proposal, please visit bit.ly/ImprovingSpEd.

As the Community Advisory Committee, you are the voice of children with Special Education needs. I hope that you will place consideration of this resolution on a future agenda and vote to recommend its passage by the Board of Education. Thank you.

With the illegal methods used to remove a formal reading of the proposed resolution, it is clear that the LAUSD’s bureaucrats are opposed to pursuing the changes that are outlined. However, with the members of the CAC showing interest in considering this proposal, the District would be well served by initiating a discussion about how to reform the system. It would be energy better spent than trying to stifle criticism.

You can join the call to pass this resolution by signing this petition.

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Carl Petersen is a parent advocate for public education, particularly for students with special education needs. 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.