SPS To Special Education Students and Families: Sorry (again)
Been hearing a lot about Special Education lately.
There was a rally yesterday at JSCEE with about 100 educators, students and parents gathered to protest upcoming staff cuts to Special Education staff at between 40-50 schools.
Special education staff in Seattle Public Schools are being shuffled around this fall to meet the needs of students with disabilities and because of enrollment drops — shifts that were greeted with dismay by about 100 parents and educators who protested before the start of a school board meeting Wednesday.
No one is losing their job, but special education teachers and instructional aides are being placed in other positions. It’s a move the district typically makes every October in response to changes in enrollment.
This made me frown:
These staffing adjustments are made with the singular focus on addressing the unmet needs of students with IEPs (Individualized Education Program).”
While I understand how expensive Sped costs can be, the district has strong-armed off parents for decades so that statement above rings hollow.
“They (students in special education classes) deserve support when they’re moving through a system that is not built for them, and taking that away is kind of guaranteeing the failure of students that SPS likes to say they support that are furthest away from educational justice” said Tess Bath, an instructional aide at Highland Park.
And this is just shocking:
Kindergarten through fifth grade students in special education classes will all have to be in the same class at Highland Park, a 20-year special education teacher Lesley Teem said. She said developmentally that is “so inappropriate.”
“To have a kindergartner and a fifth grader who have social emotional needs in the same program — while numbers wise it makes sense, support wise and investment wise it doesn’t,” Teem said.
Meanwhile, there seems to be a meme happening when Special Education parents ask questions at various orientations/meetings at schools: don't ask. In fact, a parent was told to keep comments and questions on issues "that affect all kids." The school said they didn't want to talk about individual student needs.
A the same meeting, when a parent asked about help for Advanced Learning students, that question got answered.
Is silencing Sped parents at schools the SPS goal?
In a different area of Sped, apparently there was was a meeting in 2019 with Director Hersey that was advertised about discussing the inappropriate use of restraint/seclusion of Special Education students. Apparently, Hersey said the meeting was about Black boys and didn't want to answer any other Special Education questions. (The meeting HAD been advertised as being about restraint/seclusion.)
As one person points out, use of restraint/seclusion is used disproportionally on Special Education students.
It is disproportionally used on students who are Black.
Students who are Black have been seen to be over identified for Special Education services.
Wrapping it up, that person says it is likely that students who are BLACK and Sped are problem the most impacted intersectional group.
So why didn't Hersey want to talk about it? And where was the follow-up meeting he said would come?
Comments
Special education is an after-thought in every building. So yes, not surprising that parents are silenced. They, like their kids, are viewed as a bother and not central to anything. The only remedies for the problems listed above are legal remedies. File an OSPI complaint, an OCR complaint, or file directly for due-process. Luckily, people with IEPs are the only ones who get a due process hearing to move forward automatically under IDEA without a lengthy "merit" determination. Additionally, OSPI complaints must be dealt with immediately. OSPI has long taken a dim view of the SPS special education program placement process. If parents don't care enough to challenge it, even when OSPI is sympathetic, then they'll get the absolute minimum in service... and probably be required to change schools a half a dozen times. As to the restraint issue. Restraint and seclusion are almost exclusively a disability issue - but that is lost in the unwinnable SPS culture war that apparently has no end. There will be no improvement in outcomes for anyone "furthest from social justice" until special ed becomes valued and improved.
Eddie