LA Parents, Advocates Blast Uneven Recovery Plan for Students With Disabilities
autside.substack.com
This article over on Yahoo News misses an important point. One can be entitled to IEP services. One can be entitled to compensatory services for service minutes lost during the pandemic. But, who will deliver these services?
Speaking only for myself, as a special education teacher working at the district mentioned in the article, the problems are systemic. My union, UTLA, is currently negotiating our contract. The Beyond Recovery Platform makes concrete steps to address the issues raised in the article. Thus far, the District and new Superintendent have responded with counter offers that are insulting and do not address the issues raised in the article.
For example, the District has failed to fully staff schools. My fellow SPED teachers are at maximum caseloads. Our nurse is not on campus all five school days during the week (4 days). Neither is our school psychologist (3 days). Our speech pathologist is only on campus 1 day per week.
The problem is rather simple, however. Who can afford the college and training necessary to fill these roles when the pay leaves them below the poverty line in the areas in which we serve? Consider also that the US, as a people, does not view the free public school very highly. Who would want to fill these roles? Would you spend the tens of thousands of dollars, or even the hundred thousand dollars plus to be a school psychologist, to work at a low-paid position in a public school?
What’s needed is not reform. What is needed is revolution. A complete re-working of the system. What do you think?
LA Parents, Advocates Blast Uneven Recovery Plan for Students With Disabilities
LA Parents, Advocates Blast Uneven Recovery Plan for Students With Disabilities
LA Parents, Advocates Blast Uneven Recovery Plan for Students With Disabilities
This article over on Yahoo News misses an important point. One can be entitled to IEP services. One can be entitled to compensatory services for service minutes lost during the pandemic. But, who will deliver these services?
Speaking only for myself, as a special education teacher working at the district mentioned in the article, the problems are systemic. My union, UTLA, is currently negotiating our contract. The Beyond Recovery Platform makes concrete steps to address the issues raised in the article. Thus far, the District and new Superintendent have responded with counter offers that are insulting and do not address the issues raised in the article.
For example, the District has failed to fully staff schools. My fellow SPED teachers are at maximum caseloads. Our nurse is not on campus all five school days during the week (4 days). Neither is our school psychologist (3 days). Our speech pathologist is only on campus 1 day per week.
The problem is rather simple, however. Who can afford the college and training necessary to fill these roles when the pay leaves them below the poverty line in the areas in which we serve? Consider also that the US, as a people, does not view the free public school very highly. Who would want to fill these roles? Would you spend the tens of thousands of dollars, or even the hundred thousand dollars plus to be a school psychologist, to work at a low-paid position in a public school?
What’s needed is not reform. What is needed is revolution. A complete re-working of the system. What do you think?