Parent Voices

Eroding Trust

Why is the LAUSD’s Division of SpEd saying that “placement continues to be an IEP decision” while choices like Aut Core are eliminated?

“They are plowing through special programs regardless of anything parents have to say.”

- LAUSD Parent Vicky Maronyan

At the first LAUSD Special Education Committee meeting of the new school year, the Division of Special Education presented a “Back to School Update.” As the Beaudry Bureaucrats read directly from their prepared slides it quickly became apparent that “inclusion” was a subject that they wanted to emphasize. Of the nine slides in the presentation, one-third were focused on how the district is “fostering inclusion for all our students.”

While providing inclusive environments seems like progress for a school district that spent decades trying to earn its way out of court-ordered supervision for its delivery of special education services, experience has shown that inclusion is often enacted through forced mainstreaming. Instead of bringing “typical” students into a special education environment, those with disabilities are forced to acclimate to general education classrooms, even when it is completely inappropriate.

While pretending to have a goal of ending “segregation”, the LAUSD has limited access to specialized environments…