The Latest on SPS/SEA Actions, August 31, 2026

Just to note the obvious - the contract needs to be approved before the first day of school on Wednesday, September 2nd. The district says the teachers and other staff can work under their old contract without a strike. 

The West Seattle Blog reports that as of this hour (3 pm), they are waiting at SPS headquarters for a briefing from the Superintendent. WSB will be blogging live so I'll try to keep up there. They do report that negotiations ARE continuing. 

Parents don't seem to get that changing Special Education to return most of those students to their home schools means putting them in General Ed classes. My recollection is that while SPS has high-minded reasons to do so, they are not putting any money towards teacher support. I never have had confidence in the plan and without clear information, it's hard to know what will happen. 

Here is one Reddit parent's explanation of current and offered services for Special Education. I liked another parent's comment to this post:

Special education reform should happen out in the open, with parents, students, the disability community, our elected school board, special education leaders, and yes, the union at the table.

Another comment:

I think they are definitely selectively talking to points that benefit their sides. Then again, spsforkids.org does that too. I know this website isn't made by SEA but it clearly aligns with their stance.

Schuldiner focuses on the improvements in ratio for Tier 1 ("Resource") kids. Also, it's true that Tier 1 kids account for majority of IEPs. On the other side, the spsforkids website focuses on the decrease in ratio for Tier 2 ("Extended Resource"), as an example. Which is why it was difficult and annoyingly difficult for me to get the full picture.

All that said in aggregate, yes there's definitely a decrease in staff. I think it would be wise for SPS to at least admit that.

And other interesting comment:

I'm in a neighboring district and we went through this a few years back, also during bargaining -- previously had two "levels" with different staffing ratios defined in the CBA, with one level being at all schools and the other (self-contained) at only some schools. Now there's just one combined "level" and all students are served at their neighborhood school. 

Special ed teachers who were previously assigned to the self-contained program do have more students on their caseload now, but many of them are students with lower support needs. There's a lot more flexibility for admins to assign caseloads to special ed teachers based on the actual needs of students, rather than an artificial label.

It appears from the SEA's Bargaining Update from August 30th message that SPS is coming back to the table tonight. SEA says this:

The district is now refusing to have conversations on any other topics until we find agreement on Special Education. Yet, our team has spent countless hours, brought in additional Special Education members, used our creativity and brainstormed as hard as we could but could not find a way to accommodate their plans without undermining the supports and learning our students need. In our session this evening we gathered with the district and Special Education teachers and IAs shared some of our experiences with them.

Also, the SEA is having a "Fair Contract" rally tomorrow, September 1 at 5 pm at the JSCEE.

SEA has posted this graphic of the details of what SPS is offering for the SEA contract. I think a side-by-side comparison would be the best but I doubt either side will produce one that will be totally honest. 

FYI, at the SEA home page near the bottom there are links for contracts for all represented members. 

It's interesting that their calendar of events doesn't include the first day of school. 

SPS, in its messaging, does not say they are giving raises - they say "increases educator compensation." Because in the SEA "correction" they said that "keeping up with inflation is NOT a raise." Also, it appears to me that teachers would get slightly above the current inflation rate of 3.4%. One issue I don't like from SEA is that they seem to forget what they got last time in terms of bumping up their salaries. 

From their Community Update:

They are pushing the SPS for Kids site which is not a good sign. Why? Because they say it's "not affiliated with SEA." Well, a bunch of SEA members put it together and a parent set up the site. I'd say there sure is some connection for sure.

They also have a series of flyer/poster/images that people can use to support teachers. This one seems problematic to me. I say that because it mentions many items that I don't believe are being negotiated like "LGBTQ+ protections, smaller classes, and sanctuary schools." But other flyers talk about fair pay especially "for our lowest-paid workers" and not just smaller class sizes but "caseloads" and "educator voice and professional autonomy."

Of course the SEA has multiple issues they want to address but I think it is confusing to parents and the public to have public notices that say different things.