FIGHTING FOR SPECIAL EDUCATION

School District Delays Vote On Advisory Group’s Disputed Membership

Expressing concern over the selection process, LAUSD Superintendent Carvalho will review how members of the CAC are chosen before proceeding.

“We will listen to all voices prior to proceeding.”

– LAUSD Superintendent Alberto Carvalho

The Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) Board was scheduled to vote on the membership list for the Community Advisory Committee at its 1:00 PM meeting on August 22, 2023. This list was originally supposed to be considered in June, but the matter was pulled from the agenda when concerns were expressed that outspoken members, including the Chair, were purged from the committee. While it was hoped that the extra time would be used to correct mistakes that had been made, District bureaucrats continued to shut the CAC membership out of the process and submitted a list of recommendations that only changed one name.

In anticipation of the vote, I sent a letter to members of the Board expressing concern about the committee’s lack of involvement in evaluating the candidates and making a recommendation. I summarized these points during the public comment portion of the 9:00 AM meeting on August 22, 2023:

Later today you will vote on approving a list of candidates for the Community Advisory Committee or CAC. Having this committee is mandated by the California Ed Code and is supposed to guide’ your policies for Special Education Services. To accomplish this mission, this committee must be given the opportunity to act independently from the District’s bureaucracy. Unfortunately, this independence has been compromised by methods used to create the list that you will vote on.

Under Its by-laws, the CAC was supposed to establish an Appointment Committee to create the rubric that would be used to score applicants. Instead, the Office of Student, Family, and Community Engagement (SFaCE) hijacked the process. Since the resulting recommendations were not created in accordance with the by-laws and have not been chosen by the Committee’s…