Fighting For SpEd

School Board Member Will Look At Special Education Resolution

BD7 rep Tanya Ortiz Franklin tells community representatives she will follow up on the proposal to improve how LAUSD delivers services.

“I’m happy to look more closely at it and to follow up.”

– Tanya Ortiz Franklin

While the community has expressed support for the proposed Improving Special Education Within the LAUSD resolution, the elected board members have not stepped up to help the District’s most vulnerable students. Most disappointingly, Scott Schmerelson, who had expressed support for elements of this proposal during his last reelection campaign, rebuffed several requests to include a discussion of the resolution on an agenda for the Special Education Committee that he chairs.

During a contentious meeting of the Community Advisory Council (CAC) in May, the District forced a reading of the proposed resolution to be removed from the announcements portion of the meeting. However, an end run around the LAUSD’s prohibition was found by having a person who is not a committee member read it into the record during public comment. This provided an opportunity to ask…