2 On Your Side: LAUSD special education cuts
LAUSD serves more than 70,000 special education students. They are some of the most vulnerable students in the district.
This community is now fighting back, after the district announced at least a dozen closures of special needs day classes across the city.
LAUSD blames the closures on low enrollment. The district is preparing for a 30 percent drop in enrollment over the next decade, from about 430,000 students to 309,000. This is due to the high cost of living, the declining birth rate, dwindling immigration and an increase in charter schools. But, special education advocates say the district should insulate its most vulnerable population from classroom cuts.
They also claim the district has miscalculated its enrollment in its special education day classes, as there is a backlog of Individualized Education Programs or IEPs. Last year, when LAUSD closed its campuses, IEPs were not completed as they needed to be done in person.
At least a dozen local schools were recently told their special education classrooms will not open for the upcoming 2022-23 school year. Many appealed the decision, but those appeals were denied.
Now, the families whose students are in these classes are left with three options: put their child in another school, which may be several miles from home, mainstream their child into a non-special education classroom, or leave the district for a private or charter school. Parents we spoke with say change is incredibly hard for special needs kids, some of whom are entering 5th grade and will have to go to a new school after 5 years at their current school. They worry their child will have a hard time making new friends and are more susceptible to bullying because they are kids with special needs.
Our Kristine Lazar sat down with these families and one of their teachers to talk about what these closures mean for their community, and why they think the move it premature and could have devastating impacts on children who already have to work harder to keep up with their peers.
